Seattle Considers Replacing Highway With Park

Facing a need to either renovate their crumbling transportation infrastructure or remove it, public officials in Seattle are considering a few options. The city could rebuild the highway, or it could invest a little more money to move a new highway underground, leaving the surface available for a waterfront park. The second idea is gaining a wide variety of support from influential politicians, business leaders and residents.

"Assertions by traffic engineers about the highway's central place in the region's transportation network - it carries a fifth of Seattle's north-south traffic - are colliding with new ideas about building a waterfront park above a six-lane tunnel, replacing the viaduct with a new one or building a park and a boulevard with no shoreline highway at all."

"The argument reflects the shifts that are occurring as American cities invest in infrastructure to become more economically competitive. Seattle is the latest city to weigh the value of replacing a 20th-century symbol of driving efficiency, designed to serve cars, with parks and boulevards, designed to enrich the human experience."