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Seattle Freeway Replacement Plans Whittled to Two Options

Posted by: Nate Berg

15 December 2008 - 5:00am

Planners and officials in Seattle have whittled down the list to just two ideas for replacing the city's damaged inner-city viaduct. Washington Governor Christine Gregoire reportedly wants a final decision by the end of the year.

"Transportation planners from the state, King County and the city of Seattle presented the governor and other elected officials with two options:

• A "surface and transit" plan that features three southbound lanes on Alaskan Way and three northbound lanes on Western Avenue.

• An elevated bypass highway that has two lanes in each direction, running side by side on independent bridge structures — the cheapest of the highway scenarios, the state says. It would include a Western Avenue exit to Belltown, Seattle Center and Interbay."

"The surface-transit option is estimated to cost $3.3 billion, and the elevated version $3.5 billion. That's higher than earlier estimates because improvements to Interstate 5, local streets and transit have been added."

Full Story: Viaduct replacement: Down to just 2 options?
Source: The Seattle Times, December 12, 2008
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Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.
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