No 'no-build' State Says Again

An article in today's Seattle Weekly indicates that the so-called "no-build" viaduct replacement option won't be an option put in front of voters in November. Mike Seely reports that the City Council received a letter from Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald saying that a surface road would "not be what the Legislature had in mind." It matters what the state transportation department thinks, remember, because all of the proposed plans count on the $2 billion that they intend to chip in.

The state seems to have an issue with the fact that a surface-level solution would decrease traffic capacity, even though the City Council has seemed willing to accept that throughput would be reduced. Apparently it takes more than a forward-thinking city council to make the right choices when it comes to traffic in the, uh, city.

From the article:

"In conclusion," writes MacDonald, "we believe that the Legislature's commitment of state funding for the project is grounded in the understanding that the project to be supported will materially replace the capacity in the existing corridor." Neither the surface alternative evaluated in a draft environmental impact statement of three surface lanes in each direction nor a lower-capacity "no replacement" option of two surface lanes in each direction would meet that intent, MacDonald wrote. He also expressed doubt about whether the surface option would be eligible for $220 million in similarly appointed federal funds, concluding: "If something other than 'replacement' is proposed, Congress would have to change the language to allow these earmarked funds to be used."

This speed bump is not something entirely unexpected and the Council must have been hoping they'd be able to change some minds at the state level, but so far it looks like they haven't had much luck. It sucks that we may be handcuffed like this in terms of our viaduct options, but we can't see any easy ways around $2 billion. Our prediction: "no-build" is on the ballot anyway in November, it wins, and then nothing happens because it can't get funded.