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Monday, December 4, 2006
Alaskan Way Viaduct: Retrofit redux?
So, repairing rather than replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct may be feasible after all? At least that's the initial indication from what little the public has heard of an engineering study produced for the state Department of Transportation.
Veteran structural engineer Victor Gray has long argued that the viaduct could be retrofitted to survive a moderate earthquake, freeing billions of dollars to be spent elsewhere.
The first rap on the retrofit idea is that it offers a 15- to 25-year solution. Replacing it, with either another elevated structure or a tunnel, would offer a 50- to 100-year solution.
But a retrofit revival certainly would raise the question of whether we can afford the long-term solution when the region is faced with so many immediate transportation safety needs, beginning with the needed replacement of the Evergreen Point Bridge. And it could give us 15 to 25 years to analyze the best long-term solutions.
Of course, all that will be relevant only if the retrofit offers a substantial cost savings. Why retrofit -- and still be stuck with the existing structure's traffic-safety shortcomings -- if it costs anywhere near what a replacement would?
Tell us what's on your mind.
 | |
| How much less would a repair rather than replacement of the viaduct have to cost before you'd support that alternative? | |
 29.0%$1.5 billion |
18.8% $1 billion |
| 12.5% $100 million |
39.7% $1 |
| Total Votes: 335 | |
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