Go! Cary!

Option to tear down viaduct appears to gain some traction

Amid all the debate about whether the Alaskan Way Viaduct should be replaced with a tunnel or another bridge, a third proposal is quietly gathering steam: Tear it down.

As I have written here before, it's a good idea — if it works. In any case it ought to be studied carefully and fairly. Both of the leading plans require a period of years between tearing down the existing viaduct and the opening of its replacement. My own hunch is that it will not work — but give it a close look, because in any case we will be without the viaduct for 3-4 years so we should figure out how to mitigate the problems. So planning for no viaduct has to be done in any case.

My further conjecture is that the result of such study will scare the bejeesus out of the authorities — because a reasonable case for a tear-down might well emerge. Not an overwhelming endorsement but a qualified "Maybe..." Pressure will mount to tear down the viaduct and use the gap time as an experiment. But enough constituencies will fear that the viaduct may be indispensable. So we will repair the existing viaduct. The authorities cannot afford to have us try the experiment — because it might work.

Of course there is still the possibility that the Viaduct corridor might have importance to homeland security which issue will trump everything else.