Compromise gives city more time to plan tunnel option for viaduct

OLYMPIA — It looks likely that lawmakers will give the city of Seattle until the end of the year to come up with a viable plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel.

The state House on Thursday passed a supplemental transportation budget with an amendment requiring the governor to decide on a viaduct-replacement project by Jan. 1, 2007. It also requires the state Office of Financial Management (OFM) to assess the finances of any replacement proposal. The measure appears to have Democratic support in the Senate.

The amendment, approved on a voice vote, replaced an earlier provision added by tunnel opponents that would have killed off the underground option unless full funding for the project was found by the beginning of next month.

"It's a reasonable deadline, versus an unreasonable deadline," said House Transportation Chairman Ed Murray, D-Seattle, a tunnel supporter who crafted the compromise.

A debate over the viaduct's future erupted this week when several prominent Democrats complained the tunnel was too expensive. They wanted to force the state Department of Transportation to rebuild the viaduct.

Seattle officials said they could support the new legislation. "It's a much more reasonable approach to make a decision," Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said.

State officials say there's enough money to rebuild the viaduct, damaged by the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, at a cost of about $2.45 billion. However, the city of Seattle wants the state to build a tunnel. That would cost more money but open the waterfront to new recreation and development.

The latest estimates project the tunnel would cost $3.1 billion to $3.6 billion.

Ceis has said the city can put together $3.2 billion for the project, including city utility and street money and $200 million from the Port of Seattle. Raising the additional money, though, could mean an increase in the city's utility rates that would require City Council approval.

The city also is looking to a regional tax package that could add $800 million for viaduct replacement, but it's uncertain when, or if, it would get on the ballot.

Under the bill approved by the House, the OFM would review the finances of each option to replace the viaduct. Then Gov. Christine Gregoire would look at the analysis and decide which one to move ahead with, Murray said.

Seattle could put together a tunnel-financing plan that includes anticipated money, such as a regional tax package that may not be on the ballot until next year. But the proposal would be scrutinized by the OFM and Gregoire.

Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, one of the lawmakers leading the fight to eliminate the tunnel option, said she doesn't think the city's dream of a tunnel will survive.

"In the end, I think we will have the rebuild," she said.

Andrew Garber: 360-236-8268 or agarber@seattletimes.com