Viaduct Options Narrowed To Two

West Seattle Blog is tweeting from the King County Courthouse, bringing the latest on the viaduct situation from a City of Seattle press conference. According to her, the two options now presented are a surface/transit hybrid and an elevated bypass hybrid.

The surface transit option would entail making Alaskan Way a one-way going south and Western Ave a one-way going north, each with three car lanes and a bike lane. The elevated bypass hybrid would have two one-direction bridges, two lanes each, stretching from the Battery Street tunnel to the stadiums in the south. Alaskan Way would run under them as is. With this plan, WSB notes, one of the bridges could be built first to help with the traffic while its twin is constructed.

According to this Strange Bedfellows post, the surface/transit option is estimated to cost $3.3 billion (a few billion more than previous estimates, so we're not sure that could possibly be correct) and the elevated bypass hybrid is estimated at $3.5 billion.

We're a little confused about the cost estimates--surely that's a typo--and interested to hear the raging debate about the qualities and drawbacks of each plan. Sims, Gregoire, and Nickels are to pick the final plan in the next few weeks. UPDATE: completely different cost estimates at WorldChanging Seattle.

"The Viaduct" by Seattlest Flickr Pool Contributor Novon.