State: Tunnel Vote Is Pointless

The state DOT today said that one of the two choices on the March special "what to do with the viaduct" election isn't safe, effectively rendering the election pointless.

Seattle's proposal for a reduced, four-lane Alaskan Way tunnel should be dropped from further consideration, because of "serious operational and safety problems found during our technical review," the State Department of Transportation said in a letter released this morning.

Here's the letter [pdf].

The DOT's issue is the lack of a shoulder in the proposed four-lane tunnel. Since the deadly Caldecott Tunnel fire in 1982 (the tunnel had no shoulder, a woman parked in the left-hand lane to inspect her car, a gas tanker hit it, there was a bus behind the gas tanker, you can imagine the rest) full-time shoulders are considered a necessity. The city's proposed tunnel wouldn't have them.

There's also a sharper curve in the design that would force drivers to slow down nearly 15 mph. Not okay, according to existing guidelines.

The election will cost taxpayers $1 million, plus whatever voters spent on postage to send their ballots back. With only one viable choice on the ballot, it looks like the only winners will be the Post Office.

UPDATE: Nickels won't respond publicly until tomorrow, but his spokesperson told the Times this: "I think this clearly shows WSDOT's bias," said Marianne Bichsel. (Uh, right--the DOT is biased against high-traffic tunnels with no shoulder...actually, we think that's a bias we can live with.)