“This was not an easy process, but it’s done. It is done. It is done,” Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said Tuesday afternoon at a signing ceremony for state legislation to replace the elevated highway with a deep-bored tunnel. “Today we end the era of the Viaduct.” Before signing the bill, Gov. Chris Gregoire addressed people who still questioned whether the state could build the Read More ›
CASCADIA IN THE NEWS Cascadia’s Bruce Agnew Discusses Tunnel Approval, & Cost Issues, KIRO-FM 97.3, Dave Ross Show, 4/28/09 “Seattle Tunnel Would Be The World’s Widest,” Daily Journal Of Commerce, 4/24/09 Cascadia’s Bruce Agnew interviewed on Tunnel Decision, KOMO 1000 AM, Seattle, 4/23/09 OTHER ARTICLES “Lawmakers Approve Viaduct Tunnel,” Seattle P-I, 4/24/09 “Viaduct Tunnel Bill Passes Legislature,” KING5-TV, 4/24/09 “Should Read More ›
The state legislature has approved a deep bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and Cascadia Center was instrumental in educating decision-makers. This recent article highlights our role.
.....As recently as last December, the bored tunnel was dismissed as too expensive by the viaduct project team. But then the Washington State Department of Transportation realized it could build a tunnel with a single bore instead of a double bore, and the cost estimate fell by almost $900 million. “It's less labor, less materials, one machine versus two,” said John White, viaduct program director for WSDOT.
...Last year two 51-foot diameter tunnels were built in Shanghai, China, according to a report by Arup that was commissioned by the Cascadia Center, which is part of the Discovery Institute. A forceful advocate for the bored tunnel, Cascadia paid Arup $35,000 for that report, according to Cascadia's policy director, Bruce Agnew. In early December, while the viaduct project team was eliminating the bored tunnel from its list of possibilities to replace the viaduct, Cascadia brought together a group of tunneling experts who wrote a letter to WSDOT saying its cost estimates for the bored tunnel were too high. The group wrote to WSDOT Deputy Secretary David Dye and said a bored tunnel could be “completed in the 60 months period with a price of $2 billion or less.” That letter was authored by Richard Prust of Arup, Vladimir Khazak of HNTB, Dick Robbins of the Robbins Co., independent consultant Kern Jacobson and Gerhard Sauer of the Sauer Corp.
(Full article)
More info.:
Cascadia's Bruce Agnew Discusses Tunnel Approval, & Cost Issues, KIRO-FM 97.3, Dave Ross Show, 4/28/09
Cascadia's Bruce Agnew Interviewed On Tunnel Decision, KOMO 1000 AM, Seattle, 4/23/09
Two community open houses were held earlier this week, in Ballard and West Seattle, by the Washington State Department of Transportation, King County DOT, and the City of Seattle DOT. At the events, WSDOT made available some new fact sheets and maps to help answer questions about the inland downtown deep bored tunnel picked to replace the earthquake-prone Alaskan Way Read More ›
In an interview with Ross Reynolds on KUOW-FM – MP3 audio file here – Washington Governor Chris Gregoire said it was “very likely” that tolling would be applied to the new deep bored tunnel planned to replace the seismically vulnerable Alaskan Way Viaduct on State Route 99 in Seattle. (A state rendering of the bored tunnel’s cross-section is below, right.) Read More ›
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 p.m. PT Contact: Bruce Agnew (206-228-4011); Mike Wussow (206-292-0401 x158); or Matt Rosenberg (206-938-2082) CASCADIA CENTER APPLAUDS DECISION TO REPLACE VIADUCT WITH TUNNEL Transportation Center Says Governor, Mayor, County Executive Show Leadership, Vision SEATTLE (Jan. 13, 2009) – The Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute applauded the decision announced today to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The Read More ›
Link to MP3 audio file of Dave Ross interviewing Cascadia Center’s Director Bruce Agnew about the decision to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep bore tunnel.
Subbing for Dori Monson, KIRO Radio’s Frank Shiers enlists Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis and Cascadia Center Director Bruce Agnew for a discussion of the advantages of a deep bored tunnel to replace the earthquake-prone, elevated, Alaskan Way Viaduct along Seattle’s downtown waterfront on State Route 99. MP3 here.