Gregoire doubts surface option

OLYMPIA — Gov. Christine Gregoire hasn't completely ruled out a surface-street replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct but said Monday that "I have yet to see any surface option that works."

The idea of tearing down the earthquake-damaged viaduct and improving surface streets and transit has gained momentum since the state's political leaders killed Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal for a four-lane tunnel last week, calling it unsafe and too expensive.

Gregoire and leaders in the state House and Senate are pushing for a $2.8 billion elevated highway to replace the one built in 1953. But there's strong resistance to the idea in Seattle. Some see a surface alternative as the only politically viable option.

The governor said she doesn't see how it would work. Research has shown the option would cause traffic congestion downtown and on Interstate 5, she said.

"I can't see just tearing it down and letting it go and creating a parking lot on I-5. I think the citizens would be appalled," Gregoire said at her weekly news conference on Monday.

"What they want, yes, is safety, but they want congestion relief," she said. "If what we're going to do is to cause the opposite, I think they will be very unhappy."

A surface-street option is the pro-tunnel Seattle City Council's official second choice. In addition, King County Executive Ron Sims has pushed the idea.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, has said he's open to it, if the elevated highway doesn't move ahead. And Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, hasn't ruled out the prospect, either.

Gregoire said she's met with Sims to discuss his ideas.

"Ron and I have had a really good conversation, and he hasn't said to me this is the option. He's just said let's work as hard as we can and see if there is anything there at the end of the day," Gregoire said.

"I agree. Let's go forth and see," she said. "But today, there is no other viable option but an elevated structure."

David Dye, a top administrator for the state Department of Transportation, said Monday that his agency hasn't supported tearing down the viaduct and replacing it with surface streets because of the traffic congestion they project it would create downtown and on I-5.

"You take congestion and you make it about a nine- to 10-hour-a-day proposition throughout downtown," Dye said.

"And then you take the waterfront in your [six-lane] boulevard situation, where you're trying to create an active, good place for people to go, you end up with 77,000 vehicles a day whizzing past this supposed people place," he said.

"So for those reasons alone it was deemed not to be a very good alternative."

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber@seattletimes.com