Peterson climbs aboard WSDOT with two megaprojects already in progress that threaten not simply Hammond’s reputation as on on-time, on-budget steward, but the state’s fiscal health. The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project and SR 520 Bridge Replacement project amount to more than $7.2 billion in the latest iteration of their ever-changing budgets. Continue reading New WSDOT Chief Boards Runaway Trains of Viaduct & 520 Projects
Every year, a certain number of Seattle residents wince at the first flight, many apparently residents of Capitol Hill. For various reasons–War machines! Scared pets! Migraines! Jet fuel smog! Wait, I-90 is closed?!–the shriek of F/A-18 Hornets sets their nerves on edge, to such an extent that even reminding them how much money Boeing makes from constructing these things doesn’t help. (A: $30 to $60 million per.) Continue reading How to Survive the Blue Angels
The Coalition admits that “the existing 4-lane bridge is in danger of collapse” in their brief, but argues that it’s stretching truth and necessity to call the new 520 project “6-lane” when it tops out at 12 lanes (in Montlake, as it connects with various on- and off-ramps). “For instance, just east of Montlake Boulevard,” they point out, “the project’s width is approximately 250 feet.” Continue reading Foes of SR 520 Bridge-Embiggening File Opening Brief in Federal Lawsuit
But, faced with years of tunnel-construction and Viaduct-destruction, the Port and Mariners have decided a new stadium is a bridge too far. Why? Fears of traffic congestion. Here is a delightful section of the Port’s letter to all and sundry in which they discover that they never got their promised east-west connectors, that tolls divert traffic, and that they forgot to demand meaningful construction mitigation. Continue reading New Stadium Notion Leaves Port, the Ms Feeling Congested Even Before Tunnel Toll
WSDOT is not normally in the habit of announcing that they have $200 million in fun money they have no use for. There exist WSDOT projects with perhaps more impact than ferrying 57,000 vehicles (per day by 2030) past Seattle’s core. For comparison, Mercer Street, which carries 80,000 vehicles per day, is getting a makeover costing $164 million, $36 million less than WSDOT’s estimating error on their $3.1-billion tunnel project. Continue reading Seattle’s Shunpikers Slice $200 Million From Tunnel Toll Estimates
You know who doesn’t care about the new SR 520 tolls? Microsoft Connector passengers. Or, rather, they no longer have to care. When I asked Microsoft’s Lou Gellos if the Redmond-based company anticipated a boost in ridership of their private transit system, now that the 520 bridge is being tolled, he chuckled and said they’d already seen an increase: back in April, when the tolls were originally planned to go into effect. Continue reading New SR 520 Toll Boosts Microsoft Connector Ridership
“Why Voting FOR initiative 1125 Will Stop the 520 Project” is the subject line of the group’s email, where they discuss supporting Tim Eyman’s absurd initiative as a way of forestalling 520 expansion. As they point out, I-1125’s balderdash would work, to some extent, in their favor: It prevents tolls on I-90 being used for the expansion of SR 520. It says tolls have to be the same all day and night. Continue reading Sustainable 520 Coalition NIMBYs Their Way to Support of Eyman’s I-1125
