Planners and officials in Seattle have whittled down the list to just two ideas for replacing the city's damaged inner-city viaduct. Washington Governor Christine Gregoire reportedly wants a final decision by the end of the year.
"Transportation planners from the state, King County and the city of Seattle presented the governor and other elected officials with two options:
• A "surface and transit" plan that features three southbound lanes on Alaskan Way and three northbound lanes on Western Avenue.
• An elevated bypass highway that has two lanes in each direction, running side by side on independent bridge structures - the cheapest of the highway scenarios, the state says. It would include a Western Avenue exit to Belltown, Seattle Center and Interbay."
"The surface-transit option is estimated to cost $3.3 billion, and the elevated version $3.5 billion. That's higher than earlier estimates because improvements to Interstate 5, local streets and transit have been added."
FULL STORY: Viaduct replacement: Down to just 2 options?
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research