How transportation can transform a city – Seattle's double decker tunnel
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
The city is pushing a one-time tax bill called a "local improvement district" to property owners in downtown for the benefit of better views and higher property values once the viaduct is gone. There is speculation of pulling a second LID for improvements in the area of Key Arena to coindide with the new NHL team http://mynorthwest.com/1242618/dori-rob-johnson-seattle-nhl/
The tunnel may be necessary but it's not all rosy as the WaPo article makes it out to be.
It's the best thing the city has ever done, far and away. Fundamentally changed the city and is responsible for incalculable property value and quality of life improvements in the city.
It's like saying everyone within a radius of a new light rail station or interstate on-ramp has to pay a one-time assessment, instead of infrastructure projects being for the common good.
The local improvement districts smell like corporate socialism, and selective taxation. More money for government to spend, more money for developers to receive, and the public don't care because it only affects rich people with waterfront views. Until the next "local improvement district" affects their neighborhood. It's a recipe for corruption and a slippery slope.
Don’t get me wrong, I am delighted to see the viaduct go, but I’m not sure the replacement is needed, or really a replacement. I also think that they’re essentially building a surface level highway along the waterfront, which to me diminishes what could have been a truly world-class waterfront.
Really wish we had kept rail along this alignment (rather than letting Seattle Art Museum destroy the waterfront trolley), but short of that we are stuck with making busses fast and reliable.
Wrt cutting this down to 1 lane in either direction for regular cars, in the context of the ferry queues clogging Alaskan Way currently, narrowing the road would create a waterfront parking lot between ferries.
Running the park down the middle of the road would be enjoyable, Portland has a few nice parks of that style
It's always hard to say what's needed, but I suspect the tunnel will be well used.
The Wednesday after the Viaduct closed, I dropped by a few office buildings, and business after business was operating with only a handful of the usual staff on site. Most of those office employees are only on site daily due to poor management IMO.
It is definitely a great example, but no one should strive to emulate it.
Hopefully ST3 comes to fruition as there simply aren't many more places to put highways.
There are types of lane and intersection designs which never seem to work well, and I'm surprised that more isn't done to avoid or eliminate them.
Seattle’s congestion is kind a crap-chute because every downtown/SLU employee is basically choked through a bridge in one way or another.
Edit: and no one wants to live south. For whatever reason. And even if you commuted south, seems like it’s about a 50% chance a semi is going to be crashed on that weird median.
It does have improvements such as a small provision for emergency vehicles to squeeze by or pulling a disabled vehicle out of the way, and hopefully it is resilient to quakes. Still... Lot of expense for the same 4 lanes.