The city of Seattle announced today at a joint meeting with Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims, and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to build a 4.2 billion dollar tunnel to replace the aging Akaskan way viaduct.
There are approximately 100,000 vehicles that pass along this cooridor everyday and the structure is at it's last leg of the aging 55 year span. The next big earthquake may tumble this double decker concrete bridge to the ground.
Opponents protest choosing such a project due to the fact of the costs involved to tax payers at a tune of 4,2 billion dollars. as opposed to a recent proposal of 2.8 billion project.
Seattle area tax payers have always opposed one project or another and many great expansions have been scrapped because of it.
The City of Seattle has one of the best growth potentials of any city in the nation. We should be a city with mass transit in the form of subways linking the Seattle downtown core to the suburbs of Magnolia, Ballard, Edmonds and future expansion up north. It would be great to have a bullet train that travels north to Vancouver B.C. in thirty minutes or south to Portland OR, in the same time frame.
Are we ready for this tunnel? or is Seattle, Washington destined to be one of those cities that grow without having an infrustructure to support the future of a major metropolitan city of cities?
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