Tag Archives: deep bore tunnel

Seattle still doesn’t need a downtown car tunnel, but crews deserve a victory lap today

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Tom Fucoloro

Seattle Bike Blog has been opposed to the downtown car tunnel since this site started in 2010, and we still are. It’s an enormous investment in unsustainable transportation that will likely make downtown and South Lake Union traffic worse. It’s a … Continue reading →

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Rethinking Seattle’s Freeways: Mr. Inslee, tear down this Aurora wall

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Tom Fucoloro

What if Bertha never finishes the SR 99 highway tunnel? What if SR 99 doesn’t need to be a freeway-style highway through downtown at all? And what if that’s true for the whole city, too? In other words, what if … Continue reading →

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Seattle’s highway tunnel wins award! … for ‘Worst Highway Boondoggle’

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Tom Fucoloro

Seattle is a city that is doing everything. Our city makes all the lists of places in the nation that are making smart decisions and getting results.* Best place to get a job? Made that list. Best new protected bike … Continue reading →

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Why Seattle should stop waiting for the tunnel and tear down the viaduct now

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

The megaproject to repair the delayed downtown highway megaproject has been delayed. Again. The tunnel project team had their shot to build the tunnel before the viaduct was torn down. They blew it, and now the viaduct is sinking beyond … Continue reading →

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Dexter closed Wednesday night, will reopen in morning with different detour

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

It’s probably best to just avoid the city center’s busiest bike street tonight. Both the Mercer and Alaskan Way Viaduct Projects will be closing parts of Dexter Ave in South Lake Union starting 7 p.m. Wednesday evening and ending 6 a.m. … Continue reading →

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Northbound bike lane on Dexter will be closed 8 days starting Monday

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

Just in from WSDOT: The state will close the northbound bike lane on Dexter at Harrison Street for eight days starting Monday morning. The crunch is so the state can relocate utilities for the Highway 99 tunnel (that may or … Continue reading →

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WSDOT opens bike path under new Atlantic St Overpass

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

The biking and walking trail under the newly-opened Atlantic Street Overpass is now open, fixing a confusing bike connection between E Marginal Way and the Alaskan Way Trail into downtown. When the overpass opened to traffic early this year, the … Continue reading →

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Work on Hwy 99 tunnel ramps will close Dexter bike lanes + Is this a chance to extend the redesign?

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

The state is set to start utility relocation work to prepare the area between South Lake Union and Lower Queen Anne for the Highway 99 tunnel’s new on and off ramps. That means crews need to dig up parts of … Continue reading →

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#ReturnBertha: Why we don’t need to finish the downtown tunnel highway

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

While we here at Seattle Bike Blog have been very much against the Highway 99 deep bore highway tunnel all along, it was mostly because it is too expensive for what we were going to get. Basically, by investing in … Continue reading →

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We can do better things with our new downtown tunnel

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Tom Fucoloro

WSDOT was able to bore a little further than 1,000 feet before Bertha ground to a halt, 60 feet below downtown Seattle. That was December 6. A month and three weeks later, the tunnel boring machine has not moved an … Continue reading →

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Arrival of pointless and expensive SR 99 tunnel boring machine will close Alaskan Way Trail intermittently

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Tom Fucoloro

With the arrival of Bertha—the machine that will dig the pointless and extravagantly expensive SR 99 car tunnel under downtown—users of the Alaskan Way Trail through Pioneer Square should be prepared for intermittent closures and delays as WSDOT moves the … Continue reading →

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Tonight: Help save the waterfront

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Tom Fucoloro

Remember when one of the biggest promises of the Alaskan Way Viaduct removal project was that it would reconnect downtown to the waterfront? Well, that’s not going to happen unless we speak up to make sure the walking and biking … Continue reading →

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What we can learn from the tunnel vote loss

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

Well, our city has voted to invest an astronomical amount of money to build a tunnel for cars. It’s an investment in the past, in pollution and in continued, long-term motor vehicle use. I can’t deny I’m a bit relieved … Continue reading →

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2011 primary election bike-friendly voter’s guide

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

It’s voting time again. Odds are, your ballot is sitting in a pile of mail somewhere. Go dig it out. It’s time to vote with your spokes. Seattle Bike Blog is hardly prepared to provide a comprehensive voter’s guide, but … Continue reading →

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After remaining neutral until now, Cascade comes out against the tunnel

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

The Cascade Bicycle Club has remained neutral on the proposed deep bore tunnel, saying they want a solution that makes the city better for cycling. Today, the club announced on its blog that it endorses voting “no” on Referendum 1: … Continue reading →

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StreetFilms: Highway Removal

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

MBA_Trailer from Streetfilms on Vimeo. Meanwhile, Protect Seattle Now has gathered 29,000 referendum signatures. They need 16,503 of those to be accepted. Pretty good odds. Polls show only 35 percent of people in Seattle want a tunnel. Studies show far … Continue reading →

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Viaduct shutdown idea gaining momentum

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

The same morning we wrote about the economics of highway removal and suggested we try closing the viaduct, Mayor McGinn was saying something similar on KUOW. So is Michael van Baker at the SunBreak (which has a wonderful new site … Continue reading →

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Must read for Viaduct removal skeptics: The economics of highway removal

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

In a post full to the brim with incredible economic stats, Elly Blue spells out the economic benefits of urban highway removal. Among the incredible bits of knowledge she reveals: “for the $75 million spent repaving three miles of urban … Continue reading →

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Instead of a tunnel, let’s buy every person in our state a bike

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Tom Fucoloro

As the City Council gets ready to sign agreements for the deep bore tunnel, I feel compelled to yet again put the outrageous cost of this project in perspective. Nicholas Arndt from Tacoma pointed out that for the cost of … Continue reading →

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Is this even a better waterfront?

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Tom Fucoloro

So this is the dream view of the waterfront after the deep bore tunnel project? Really? And the only big difference between this vision and the surface/transit option is that there is a $2 billion tunnel underground that costs $7 … Continue reading →

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