KING5 ran two 5:00 News stories on the tunnel: one last week about us (and you!); and one yesterday on the “hypothetical” money that will theoretically pay for the tunnel. In the first story, KING5 released a survey: only 41% of Seattle voters think the tunnel decision is final, and only 25% think it is very likely that the tunnel will happen. (We are not among them.)
WSDOT gets sassy
WSDOT fired a quick round at us on their Viaduct homepage — heard some tunnel “facts”?? — but then decides not to fight this grassroots Goliath and backs down (text changes to “Hearing a lot about the proposed SR 99 bored tunnel?” sometime today).
Google cache reveals WSDOT's short-lived sass attack on TunnelFacts.com
Viaduct project most important issue in Mayoral election
The recent UW poll shows that the Alaskan Way Viaduct is the #1 issue for Seattle voters in the mayoral election — higher than jobs/economy and taxes combined!
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Do any of these people who want the 4 lane tunnel actually drive on the viaduct now???? Do any of these people have to get (for business) either DT or thru town at almost anytime of the day now??? I do and I cannot tell you what a mess it is NOW!!! Where oh where is the money going to come from for something that is going to be outdated before it’s built! Fix the viaduct for now and get a better plan for 20?? when maybe the economy is better and we have a better plan for the future!!!!The present plan is very poorly planed and the cost will take ALL of our tax money for years and years to come???
Notice Nickels fails to mention in his rebuttal that Seattle taxpayers will be responsible for all cost overruns on this project. This is a classic sin of omission regarding his illegitimate estimate of $4.2 billion. I’ve worked on plenty of large scale projects, and an engineer’s estimate is validated these days after undergoing an intensive cost estimate valuation process (CEVP) that carefully weighs the potential known risks, possible unknown risks, and possible benefits, all based on a sufficiently complete design, usually with at least 30% engineering completed. The tunnel design is at about 2% engineering completion last time I checked, which doesn’t take into account a myriad of potential risks that will cause cost overruns. This $4.2 billion estimate is essentially a figure pulled out of thin air, putting taxpayers at risk to be surprised by a tax bill approaching the size of the total AIG and Citibank executive bonuses.