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Rebuild Alaskan Way Viaduct
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| Parent(s) |
Candidate
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| Contributor | Ralphie |
| Last Edited | Ralphie May 18, 2006 03:05pm |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Media | Newspaper - Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| News Date | Thursday, May 18, 2006 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | There's only one clear choice for replacing the ailing Alaskan Way Viaduct -- rebuild it. For me, this monumental decision is about safety, jobs and fiscal responsibility.
Any day could bring a devastating earthquake that could topple the viaduct, possibly kill scores of people and cripple our local economy for months if not years. We cannot afford -- for the sake of safety and economics -- to let the ideal get in the way of the real.
The federal government, Washington Department of Transportation and the city of Seattle already have examined more than 75 replacement concepts. While each of the concepts may have some merits, all but one -- the rebuild -- have fatal flaws.
Recently, some have been suggesting studying a no-build option, which would tear down the viaduct and replace it with a surface boulevard, akin to San Francisco's Embarcadero. What no-build supporters don't talk about is the fact that San Francisco's decision closed down the city's working port and shipped many family-wage jobs to Oakland, which became the port center for the Bay Area. San Francisco turned into a city of the very rich, the very poor and tourists. Seattle is still a city of working-class families.
Another flawed option, the tunnel, could take up to eight years to replace and cost estimates indicate we could be short more than $1 billion. History indicates preliminary engineering estimates usually are underestimates. We simply don't know how much a tunnel will cost or how long it will take to dig. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was very clear that no additional dollars will be forthcoming from the federal government. Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq have left the federal coffers bare. |
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