Viaduct options have similar economic impacts

The eight options for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct may all be different, but each would have similar economic impacts, according to an economic report released by the city, state and county Thursday.

It was the last of 27 measures being used to choose what should replace the aging viaduct.

While travel times may be slower with the surface options, the number of trips affected is just a small percentage of total regional trips, the report found.

"While increased travel times result in higher costs for businesses, the economic analysis predicts this will result in less than one percent loss of jobs or economic output," the study by economist Terry Moore of Eco Northwest found. The larger issue is disruption during construction, but the study said the disruption is not enough to threaten the region's economic vitality. Small business along the waterfront, however, could be severely hurt.

Two years ago Herbert Research of Bellevue did a study on what would happen with full closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. It was found to have an economic impact on Seattle businesses to the tune of $3.4 billion a year.

It found 32,146 jobs would be lost with total viaduct closure. And a full closure would mean $231 million in lost taxes to government bodies each year.

The new study released Thursday also found that land values would increase between $50 million and $250 million near the Seattle waterfront, depending on which roadway is built.

Another report released Thursday looked at pedestrian access in the eight options and found none would be pedestrian-friendly.

The study found flaws with the surface, tunnel and aerial options and said none provides a "positive pedestrian" environment that would tie downtown Seattle to the waterfront.

The authors of the 40-page report, Gehl Architects of Copenhagen, were asked to find ways to get more people to walk and bike along the waterfront. What the city needs to do, according to the report, is discourage cars and get more people walking, bicycling and taking public transit.

The state and the city of Seattle, which are spearheading the replacement project, have never denied that they would like to reduce traffic volumes, but say that may be impossible in a traffic corridor that now carries 110,000 vehicles each day. Ron Paananen, viaduct product manager for the state, said the $15,000 Gehl study recommendations are impractical for viaduct replacement, that the city could not meet the suggested traffic volumes.

Here's how the study rates the various plans for pedestrian use:

• The three surface proposals: "The space along the water is out of scale, too wide and lacking definition." The study said it would carry too many cars. • The four-lane elevated viaduct: "An unattractive space created under the two elevated highways, creating problems similar to today's situation. Traffic on Alaskan Way will more than double."

• Integrated elevated option proposed by State House Speaker Frank Chopp: "Unattractive spaces are created on top of the elevated structure," an area that would be unsafe and unattractive and likely to remain unused by pedestrians or bicyclists."

• Four-lane bored tunnel: A tunnel under Western Avenue would leave the waterfront open, but as in the surface proposals, the waterfront would be too wide and out of scale for pedestrians.

• Cut-and-cover tunnel: While this type of tunnel leaves the waterfront open, it too would create a space that would be too wide for pedestrian use.

• Four-lane lidded trench: The option doesn't create as open a waterfront as do some of the other tunnel plans, and a ventilation shaft in the middle would be disruptive visually and create noise and pollution.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop a vision for the city on a new level," according to the report. "If the answer is a fine city for people, then traffic capacity cannot be increased and thinking cannot center on vehicles."

In other viaduct developments, the Downtown Seattle Association, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the King County Labor Council sent a letter Thursday to the region's chief executives asking that a tunnel be one of the finalists when the list of eight viaduct options is narrowed to two or three next week.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com