Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seattle's Waterfront

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About Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seattle's Waterfront

This group is intended to showcase the Alaskan Way Viaduct's transition from its completion in April 1953 through its ultimate dismantling within the decade. Pictures from past and present (and future?) are welcome, with the only caveat being that the viaduct must be clearly visible.


History on the Alaskan Way Viaduct from Wikipedia:

The Alaskan Way Viaduct, completed on April 4, 1953, is an elevated section of Washington State Route 99 that runs along the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle's Industrial District and downtown Seattle. It is the smaller of the two major north-south traffic corridors through Seattle, carrying up to 110,000 vehicles per day.[1] The viaduct runs above the surface street, Alaskan Way, from S. Nevada Street in the south to the entrance of Belltown's Battery Street Tunnel in the north, follows previously existing railroad lines.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the similarly designed Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland, California with considerable loss of life. The 2001 Nisqually earthquake, damaged the viaduct and its supporting Alaskan Way Seawall and required the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to invest $3.5 million U.S. in emergency repairs. Experts give a 1-in-20 chance that the viaduct could be shut down by an earthquake within the next decade.[1] Since the Nisqually Earthquake occurred, semi-annual inspections have discovered continuing settlement damage.

Due to damage from earthquakes and sinking, a group of faculty from the University of Washington urged the mayor of Seattle (in 2005) to close the viaduct within a two-year timeframe.[2] Whether to remove, replace, or rebuild the viaduct is a politically charged issue. Proponents of removing the viaduct cite successful examples of this such as The Embarcadero in San Francisco, in which demolition and routing traffic along surface streets enhanced the city's waterfront. Proponents of viaduct rebuilding project that surface streets might not be able to handle the traffic that the viaduct currently supports without extensive surface street improvements. Proponents of viaduct replacement with a tunnel argue that, while the tunnel is an expensive project, it would maintain traffic capacity and also create new opportunities for downtown city redevelopment, with potential benefits of low-income housing, new park space, and new retail and office space.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/Viaduct/