* adjective: austere
* noun: hermit, anchoret

Yes, the experience you want for the rider does sound very ascetic.

So, I guess I don’t like tunneling for cars because I don’t think we should spend the money and I don’t like tunneling for rail because I don’t think we should spend the money and because I think the ascetic experience of the rider is very important.

I thought I would just say that the issue of boring through the fill is also a good question, althoudy debris is not much of a problem for those machines. When the Kingdome was built, they had trouble driving piles through rail cars that were part of the fill.

As it happens, I think that most of the area south of Yesler would be cut and cover- that is the area where the would dig the hole to put the machine into the ground before is starts digging. All pretty academic if you are opposed the expense in the first place, I realize.

If you want something suspect about the argument, question why most (I’m guessing) of us anti-tunnel-ites (not excluding myself) would be cool with spending that money on more rail transit tunneling.

A new bridge over the railroad tracks at Broad Street should be in place at that point. The AWV is then removed, streetcar tracks, everything removed, and building from the east side, the new Alaskan Way builds up next to the temporary boulevard. Then the completed Alaskan Way opened, the Seawall plaza and Lower Belltown segment from the waterfront to Western/ Elliott and the Battery Street Tunnel are built.

The Surface/Transit alternative construction should not incur the kinds of uncertainties and cost overruns predicted with either the Deep-bore or a Cut/cover tunnel. It’s the least expensive option but entails the most difficulty handling traffic during construction.

The 4-lane Cut/cover has less difficulty handling traffic because the AWV will remain in place up til the last year or two of construction. During those years, SR-99 traffic (from the north) will be diverted over the new bridge at Broad Street onto north Alaskan Way and enter the completed cut/cover portal at Pike.

It’s likely the current 4-lane Alaskan Way surface boulevard design will be rejected. The 4-lane design cannot handle the predicted amount of vehicle traffic that the Deep-bore will redirect there. There’s no way. It’s likely a 6-lane version will be recommended instead, but it too won’t handle the traffic. There has to be a way to divide thru-traffic from motorists looking to park.

Pre-Crunican designs incorporated a 2-lane frontage road on the eastside. Those designs should be reconsidered. The frontage road reduces the width of the Wide Plaza, but respected architects say the wide plaza is disproportionate to a working waterfront. The frontage road would line up perfectly with Railroad Ave. The ‘island’ between it and a 4-lane Alaskan Way could reproduce the current streetcar/bicycle/pedestrian corridor, only nicer.

The Deep-bore south portal will be cut/cover construction for several blocks. The Deep-bore and the 4-lane Cut/cover tunnels have roughly the same south portal design.