Defiant Nickels promises to campaign hard for a tunnel

A defiant Mayor Greg Nickels said this morning he would continue to push for a waterfront tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct in the face of strong opposition from Gov. Christine Gregoire and state legislative leaders.

Nickels said a new elevated freeway would create a wall between Seattle and its waterfront.

He said his message to Gregoire is "tear down this wall."

Nickels said he was frustrated and disappointed that state officials urged city leaders to ask Seattle voters how to replace the earthquake-damaged viaduct, then on Tuesday declared dead the tunnel option the city put on ballot.

The mayor, at his weekly press conference, also labeled as “flimsy” the state’s report condemning the tunnel option.

He accused state officials of "changing the rules of the game" and "moving the goalposts."

Nickels said he would spend every possible moment campaigning against a new viaduct and for a tunnel before the March 13 all-mail election.

"We will listen to voters then decide" what steps to take in the battle over the viaduct.

Nickels did not directly answer questions asking if he would use lawsuits or regulatory obstacles to stop a new viaduct from being built.

He also didn’t say what he would propose if voters rejected both a new elevated highway and a tunnel in the election, for which ballots must be postmarked by March 13.

If a tunnel is not possible, Nickels has said in the past that his preferred alternative is tearing down the viaduct and using existing surface streets and improved transit to replace it.

Nickels noted that San Francisco tore down the elevated Embarcadero freeway on its waterfront and replaced it with a surface boulevard and trolley. The result has been a thriving waterfront, which is "exactly what we’re trying to achieve" Nickels said.

Nickels was in San Francisco on Monday for a conference on climate change. The mayor maintains a tunnel would be better for the environment than a new viaduct, even though he has proposed a tunnel that could accommodate roughly the same number of cars a day as the existing viaduct — 110,000.

A tunnel would not immediately reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and help with climate change, Nickels said. But in 25 years a tunnel would be more beneficial than a viaduct, he contended, because a tunnel would not increase existing capacity for cars, while a new viaduct likely would.

"All additional growth would be handled by transit and other methods so it begins to constrain capacity" in the future, he said.

The mayor noted that 402 cities have now joined in his pledge to cut greenhouse-gas emissions along the lines of the Kyoto Protocol, which 141 countries — but not the United States — have agreed to. Nickels called the 402 pledges a sign "there is intelligent life in this country."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com