Seattle Viaduct's Days Numbered Despite Lack of Replacement Plan
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has vowed to dismantle Seattle's crumbling inner city freeway in 2012, putting extra pressure on transportation planners, local officials and the public to agree a replacement solution.
"'It's coming down in 2012. I'm taking it down -- the middle,' she said, referring to the elevated portion of the span that runs roughly from Battery Street Tunnel to Pioneer Square, which has been the most vexing and controversial piece of the transportation puzzle."
"That's the timeline. I'm not going to fudge on it. And if we don't have some alternative by then, boy are we going to have a mess on our hands because it's coming down.'"
"Asked if she, as governor, could trump the state's largest city and county and unilaterally tear down a highway that carries more than 100,000 vehicles a day through the heart of Seattle, Gregoire said:"
"'Yeah, watch me.'"
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Making Seattle Less Pedestrian Friendly
It looks more and more like the Alaska Viaduct will be torn down without a replacement freeway being built, but it also looks like the Governor wants to do it in a way that will make the downtown much less pedestrian friendly:
As the article says:
"What Greg (Nickels) and Ron (Sims) and I have talked about is: 'Let's stop thinking about replacement of the Alaska Way Viaduct and start thinking about how do we do transportation in all of Seattle from I-5 to the waterfront,' " Gregoire said.
"We really are fundamentally not efficient and effective now. Our offramps from I-5 are not efficient to the flow of traffic. What international city do we know of that would have two-way traffic in downtown? What international city do we know of that would have street parking in the middle of downtown?
It sounds like her solution is to remove on-street parking and make the streets one-way throughout downtown Seattle - and it is well established that doing this makes a neighborhood less attractive and less safe for pedestrians.
They would be much better off if they implemented parking cash-out or congestion pricing at the same time they removed the freeway.
Charles Siegel