Last night Erica and I attended an open house for the Route 99 Viaduct project. As most are aware, the viaduct was damaged in last year's earthquake, and an engineering assessment had determined it must be torn down. The Battery St. tunnel is not safe either and will need to be replaced, also the seawall along the waterfront.

The project proposal is divided into three sections: north, central and south. North essentially covers the current tunnel, central the downtown waterfront, and south from the stadiums to the West Seattle bridge. Each one of these sections has multiple alternatives; the project team is looking for citizen input about which alternatives are preferred and why. One of the goals of the open house was to gather this input--if you have an opinion you can email them at viaduct@wsdot.wa.gov

My opinions:

• Most tunnels are going to be built with the 'cut and cover' technique, which is probably cheaper but makes the surface totally unusable during construction. Some of the routes, especially in the north, propose very long tunnels--these should be avoided.
  
• An exception to my long-tunnel objection is in the far north. The proposal there is to rejoin streets which are now cut by Aurora, which would heal the split beween Queen Anne and Westlake. This is a wonderful idea, but it will only work if streets crossing Broad St. are also rejoined--otherwise only a few blocks will be recovered.
  
• Along the downtown waterfront, the aerial structure should be at least partially preserved. At that point, the slope is steep enough that the viaduct does not block the views from the market or the buildings beyond, but it does provide spectacular views of Mt. Rainier and the bay to anyone driving along it. It would be a shame to put the drivers in a tunnel both directions. Down south, the argument can be made that the aerial structure interferes with views and should be buried.
  
• I commend the design team on the new Royal Brougham interchange. The current on- and off-ramps to 1st Ave. are replaced in all designs with ramps directly from Royal Brougham Way, most of which would have right-lane access instead of the left-lane access now which confuses drivers. One concern here: be sure to avoid the set of railroad track west of 1st Ave, which are active and would impede traffic flow. The tracks between 1st and 4th are bad enough.
  
• Apparently there is already a project in planning to connect I90 with 99 at Royal Brougham. This will relieve quite a bit of congestion on I5, as commuters use 99 to zip through downtown, and should help Ballard residents going to the Eastside and south toward Renton.
  

The Ballard representative on the project board is Stephen Lundgren, whom you may know from the Ballard District Council.

This Drudge story reads like something from The Onion.

This is a place for me to record my thoughts, practice journaling, and hopefully help keep Seattle informed about itself. More about me is at zardoz.net.