Greetings Fellow Anti-Tunnel Crusaders!
Now that the site has been up for a week, we wanted to take a moment and fill you in on the news and where we’re hoping to take the site.
We’ve had a few good mentions in the press: Publicola, Huge Ass City, and Seattle Transit Blog, and some nice links from environmental sites WorldChanging and Sustainable Cities Collective. We’ve had nearly 1500 visitors so far this week, and with KING 5 doing a short story on us tonight, we should get many more! [Update: King5 story aired at 5:30pm! What did you think?]
We’re going to start posting tunnel updates on the main page, and linking to stories about us or about the tunnel. We’re also extending our supporters an invitation to become contributors. Just shoot us an email with details on what you’d like to write, and we’d be happy to post your message. Even if you only post once, your voice is valuable and we’d like to hear what you have to say.
Also, if you have any ideas for “Tunnel Facts”, such as the ones listed on our How Much is $4.24 Billion and Other Uses for $4.24 B pages, please send them our way and we’ll post them to our Twitter and Facebook streams. You can find examples on our Twitter page.
Finally, we received a suggestion to create a few good t-shirts with Tunnel Facts on them. We were thinking just a simple tee with “TunnelFact # 642: 9 Inches of Tunnel = 10,000 Street Trees” and the campy tunnel graphic with “TunnelFacts.com” printed on it. Let us know what you’d want to wear!
Thanks again for supporting the site, and please keep checking back for more tasty Tunnel Facts.
Derek, Elliott and Skye
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Hi, thank you for this website. The tunnel will be a disaster for Seattle. Take a look at this basic fact. It has been reported that the hwy 99 viaduct is at about 110,000 cars a day. The tunnel will only be able to accomodate 85,000 cars a day. Ok. any engineer with an ounce of common sense would conclude that this should not be feasable. So, we’re going to pay 5 bil in todays dollars for major traffic jams and a tunnel that isn’t accessible for most of the core neighborhoods of Ballard, Magnolia and Queen Anne! Geez the polution this will cause with all the cars backed up spewing exhaust into our air. Stop this now!!
By the way, I am not against a tunnel. But, I am against insane projects that don’t fix the underlying problems we have.
Why don’t we keep the viaduct and retrofit it and re-surface with pavement that is quiet? And also have an onramp from hwy 99 linking to I90.
Why don’t these engineers go to Germany and take a look at there systems?
Dave
Thank you for opening this site. I have followed the tunnel mis-information and have a few facts of my own. There will be a three story building with fans to get the exhaust ou of the tunnel. This will be on Harrison and 6th, almost right behind the Gates Foundation buildings.There will be noise and air pollution. At the scoping hearings I asked how dangerous the drilling under First will be and was told that there will be no problem. This was based on wishful thinking, not on engineering facts. Roy Street will become a two way street. Roy already is a problem area for pedestians and other living things. Two way street will aggravate the situation.
Thank you all for starting this important website. Seattle needs the facts about the tunnel so that it may be stopped before we get to the point of no return.
The city and state-approved surface improvements to Alaskan, Western, and I-5 is what Seattle needs to push for. The same traffic volume will be serviced as with the tunnel, but with way more access and efficient trip distribution for way less tax dollars, much less risk of running into multi-billion dollar cost overruns (which we are also on the hook for), and a finished project with less costly and much easier maintenance.
Once a tunnel is done, we can’t go back and make adjustments for future traffic situations without shelling out massive amounts of money, unlike a redesigned surface option that may be modified just like any other arterial with equipment and experience that we already have.
So happy to see this website! I live in Magnolia and travel downtown daily, and to the Montlake area on a wekkly basis. I am dumbfounded by the ignorance behind this project. The lack of adequate access to the tunnel will have a significant impact on many Seattle communities. Mercer at specific times of the day can be blocked up with traffic trying ot get to I-5; therfore, directing traffic into lower Queen Anne to access the tunnel is unthinkable. Add to that all the people/traffic that will come from the continued development along Elliott/15th, the cruise ships, and the buildings going up around South Lake Union. This makes no sense at all! Proceeding with the tunnel project will have an negative impact on those living in Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, Phinney Ridge, Fremont, Wallingford, Eastlake and those travelling West from areas like the U-District. For those against the tunnel, check out Mike McGuinn for Mayor – he’s against the tunnel project and running in the upcoming primary.
I would like to read the geology report as developed from the drill test holes.The last ice age must have left a vaiety of sand, gravel,till and even old lake bottomes taht msut relate to tunnel boring challenges.