Viaduct Replacement Recommendation Will Have To Wait

"Morning Commute" by Seattlest Flickr Pool contributor SlightlyNorth. We thought it was a little optimistic of Sims, Gregoire and Nickels to say they would come up with a viaduct replacement recommendation by January 1st. Maybe that was just Seattlest projecting our own annual holiday brain-death, but it also had to do with the refusal of tunnel proponents to back down even though the bored-tunnel option was ostensibly removed from the negotiation table. At any rate, the trifecta of leaders issued a joint statement last night announcing that they aren't ready to recommend an option by their deadline:

As a result of the continued overwhelming response and input on replacement options from stakeholders, we have asked our respective transportation teams to continue their review. Once this information is in hand, and working closely together, a final recommendation will be made to the state Legislature in January. [...] We only have one chance to do this right.

One chance, stakeholders. The unsettling part of the statement isn't the delay, which was expected; it's the "stakeholder" terminology. Seattle became one giant corporation while we were sleeping, apparently. Guess the signs were there all along.