A conversation with Seattle
In these illustrations, the stitch to fix the scar is about as wide as the waterfront itself, and wider at parts. Tourists will share those remarkably spacious lanes with freight traffic delivering goods to the city. Continue reading A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Waterfront
Last week, the Tacoma News Tribune reported that the maker of the concrete tunnel liners for Seattle’s Viaduct replacement project, FPS EnCon, was coming apart at its joint-venture seams: “Tunnel liner builder FPS EnCon shows Frederickson workers the door.” Continue reading Seattle’s Tunnel Boring Machine Waiting on Concrete Liner Maker’s Next Move
Traffic on I-5 at Mercer Street may or may not be horrible this weekend, says Seattle’s Department of Transportation. Though there’s a full weekend closure of the I-5 on- and off-ramps at Mercer Street scheduled to start today, June 7, at 11 p.m. (and last until 5 a.m. Monday), the work is dependent on the weather. Continue reading Road News: Mercer Exit Closure, Cracked 520 Pontoons, Tunnel Tolls
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
Over on Mayor McGinn’s blog, there’s an interesting entry in the post titled “Community support grows for investing in Seattle’s transit future.” A group with environmental leanings has reunited in favor of the $80 vehicle licensing fee, the same people who not so long ago had a public falling out over the “greenery” of the deep-bore tunnel. Continue reading $80 Seattle Car Tab Fee Unites Greens That Tunnel Split Asunder
“Where is the last place that I would want to be, during a big Seattle Fault earthquake or a subduction zone quake if there was a reasonable-sized tsunami in Puget Sound?” Montgomery added, finishing his thought. “The last place I’d want to be is in a big hole under the waterfront.”
However compelling he is in laying all this out, short-term catastrophes are not what Montgomery spends most of his time thinking about. His last book, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, is required reading for anyone who’s read Jared Diamond’s Collapse. Continue reading The Dirt on Seattle’s Tunnel-Vision Future