February 16, 2007
Carpool tunnel syndrome
Doesn't matter whether you rebuild, retrofit or dig. Doesn't matter if the State Dep't of Transportation pretends they need to maintain The Viaduct's current capacity of 110,000 vehicles a day (even if The Stranger and others make it clear the number is closer to 75,000).
No matter what, there's still the annoying question of what happens to all those northbound cars when they get to the northern end of Alaskan Way. Or to the southbound cars when they get to the southern end of Aurora Avenue.
That would be the Battery Street Tunnel, friends. A classic, 55-year-old, cut-and-cover trap. Two lanes in each direction, no shoulder, for two-thirds of a mile. Cars going 40 or 50 miles an hour for some 3,140 feet, encased in a concrete chute.
The State's cement junkies claim that a four-lane tunnel under Alaskan Way is inadequate for Highway 99's traffic. so what's going to happen once they realize that traffic already feeds into an inadequate and unsafe Battery Street Tunnel? Dig up the tunnel? And will Belltown's condo owners lie down in front of the bulldozers?
