Perdition for Road Warriors

By P. Scott Cummins © 2004 The Urbane R

Make it downtown for John Kerry’s waterfront “photo op” last week? Me neither. Wasn’t invited. With donation patterns tending to favor causes over candidates, this is often the case for me - with regard to both parties. Still, seeing Kerry there couldn’t help get me thinking about what it will be like along the waterfront, or anywhere downtown, once they tear down the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Wouldn’t you love to know if Mayor Nickels brought up the subject when Kerry came to town? It might have gone like this: Excuse me Senator. See that ugly, noisy mess of a proto-freeway over there? That’s like the second busiest stretch of roadway in the entire State of Washington. No, err, yes - really. My wife loves my jokes too, Senator. But, about the Via… Yeah, I think your new campaign plane looks way cool too. Yeah, Boeing. Chicago now, that’s right. Uh huh, 757. Great plane, great plane. See, we are $3.9 billion short on fun… What’s that Senator? Your friends call you JFK? He was my favorite president too. Well, but you are my favorite future president (laughing). I bet you get that a lot! I agree, Sims or Gregoire can’t go wrong there. Uh huh, now about that … Yes, Senators Murray and Cantwell certainly are very capable, but you see, what the people don’t realize yet is that even if we can get the funding, shutting down that road is going to paralyze… Yes, you’re right, shades of the “Big Dig” alright. I quite agree, you’ve got bigger fish to fry right now, with them shutting down freeways in Boston during the Convention. One headache at a time, I quite agree. Thanks for your time.

Did it happen that way? Who knows – I must have missed the coverage on the Seattle Channel. Since we live in one of the most enlightened and benevolent urban dictatorships found anywhere, we hear only what’s needed, when needed. And in the Soviet of Seattle, we get our information spoon-fed with an expectation to swallow whole. The sad part is, most folks are happy to play right along. Particularly, it seems, with regard to replacement of the viaduct. Take the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, who just last week endorsed the most expensive “tunnel” viaduct replacement option. Personally, I am disappointed, because of dashed hopes that sometime during this “light bulb” stage the recommendation would re-emerge for a temporary ($1 billion, 20 – 25 Year) north-south Elliott Bay suspension bridge to preserve our basic vehicular capacity and economic well-being. So let’s just suppose that Congress is going to pony-up three to four billion by 2008 (much more if you add in the needed seawall replacement), and we are off to the races with viaduct demolition, seawall replacement, and digging for a brand new tunnel. What then? I recall the three year, $444 million bus tunnel project in the late eighties. That was a time in purgatory for downtown Seattle. Looking ahead on the Viaduct, and gauging the broad-side-of-the-barn time estimates thrown around, will be utter perdition. A disaster movie in the making, right here in Seattle, with our very own monster: Viaductus Horriblis. From my informal survey of major public transportation infrastructure projects (including Boston’s Big Dig, Seattle’s Bus Tunnel, and the I-90 project from Factoria westwards), cost estimates are tight – while projections on completion time are loose. Conclusion: plan for a decade or more of construction. And you thought World War II took a long time! And like that conflict, success will take sacrifice. Can’t stand Elliott Avenue, which is prone to back-up anywhere this side of the Art Institute of Seattle? Remember some of those historic backups, the ones that started before leaving Magnolia, or in Belltown? Ready for a decade or more of that kind of aggravation? Here’s a word to the wise: no matter what you “recall” about the Monorail, it is going to be one fantastic commuter option during the upcoming decade of viaduct construction. And one quick observation about the Monorail detractors: if they are that upset about elevated transport, their feelings about Sound Transit must eclipse road rage itself. So what are they going to do when word reaches them about the sheer, atrocious, Boston-Big-Dig scale of Viaductus Horriblis? Seattle’s benevolent-elected ones need to ponder that, because something tells me the depths of animus from Seattle’s public are yet to be plumbed. The Washington State Department of Transportation has a catchy slogan based on their share of the gas tax: “It’s Your Nickel. Watch It Work.” Can Hizzoner can paraphrase that – and get results? His job, and our standard of living, hangs in the balance.