Smart take, Knute. Challenges ahead - now to laser in on them and figure them out. Watching the project like a hawk is an important piece, of course, but finding a way to knit together the many project fragments to make the end result soar (in a way that Westlake didn't, for example) is a major hurdle ahead.

Now, how long have you been saving up that comic book reference...?!??! ((And where can people get a copy?))

This vote foreshadows Mike McGinn's reelection chances. One and done.

As with all prevaricators-for-convenience (remember George "I Won't Run for Reelection" Nethercutt? Slade "I Won't Trade my Vote for a Judgeship" Gorton?), McGinn can't erase the effects of his in-broad-daylight flip: the false claim that he wouldn't oppose the project.

We'll get our tunnel--and the risk of stuck drills, earthquake hazards, cost overruns and all--and McGinn can watch it all from the sidelines, not from City Hall.

Time to sell up and move out I think, before getting taxed to death to pay for a hole that will never be finished.

"Our will is weak, our visions outdated, attention spans short, and money scarce — and that's for the stuff we decide to do."

Mossback, on Seattle

You usually get the city's vibe right Mossback, but on this one you're dead wrong. This city has aspirations to thrive well ahead of the visions of most, the will to make it happen, people who stick with it, a generous electorate and growing class of incredibly rich people who will invest in the future.

Let's get on with it.

Mossback: how was blowing up city light going to help the city beat Godzilla? You can't leave us hanging like this!

@Jon: Godzilla is attracted to night lights (beware liberalizing the sign ordinance!). Yes, like a moth. So they black out the city and lure him across Puget Sound and the Olympics into the Pacific with flares, hoping the radiation-breathing mutant will swim for home. Godzilla's response to all this? "MRAAWWW!"

Good. Now lets move on to saving the perfectly serviceable Battery Street Subway: a simple, inexpensive move to reduce the surface congestion that will be caused by toll-avoiders.

"And it'll be worse yet if proposed lids (folds?), truck routes, plazas, boulevards and what have you make life on the ground unfriendly to actual people."

Well yes, that would be worse, but there is absolutely nothing in the emerging plan for the Central Waterfront redevelopment that would lead to that outcome. In fact, the whole project is about reconnecting Seattle to its waterfront.

We can--and will--find issues to bicker about as this project moves forward. It is my--no doubt--naive hope that the boldness of this endeavor will inspire less bickering and bring more of us together in support of a shared vision of a transformed urban core.

2004--The monorail 'recall' initiative is overwhelmingly defeated at the polls after project backers vastly outspend their opponents, thereby ending the public debate on the project.

2005--The monorail project implodes on its own in the face of insufficient funding.

2011--The initiative to reject the waterfront tunnel is trounced at the polls after project backers vastly outspend their opponents, thereby ending the public debate.

2012--Watch Greece, watch Spain, watch Wall Street for clues as to how the tunnel project will fare by the end of the Mayan calendar.

"Two, there is the redevelopment of the waterfront..."

How far inland are we going to do that? How high is the climate-changed sea level, Mama?

As a ST5 supporter I was dissappointed by the yes vote but now conceed that barring some physical impediment (i.e. boring machine failure etc.) the tunnel debate is over and its time to move foward on making it a more viable solution than it is now. Beyond ensuring that waterfront redevelopment is done well and transit investments are made, I think the most important step to making the tunnel work is by creating a comprehensive tolling system that covers at the very least all Seattle freeways so that "toll-dodgers" don't clog up I-5 and to ensure that the cost of freeways and congestion is more fairly assesed on those who use it.

@Seneca: While assessing McGinn's reelectioin prospects at this point as at best very speculative, I suspect that putting the nail in the coffin on this wedge issue will help McGinn move past his image as one issue candidate, which after theis vote is probably a good thing.

Also the whole cost overruns thing is still a big problem. Hopefully a solution better than "praying this isn't Brightwater 2.0" can be found.

Staybailey, what happens if the boring machine bores into a midden?

What happens if Moody downgrades King County and Washington's debt rating?

http://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/news/release/2011/July/29Credit.aspx?print=1

"The City of Seattle was among the governments cited by Moody’s for possible review."

Why the cost will rise.

@BlueLight - "what happens if the boring machine bores into a midden?"

Why construction will grind to a halt while archeologists hand dig the midden.

Of course what would be even worse is to bore into a native American grave site.

"If the DBT struggles or fails or bankrupts us, we'll have only ourselves to blame."

On the contrary, blame notoriously incompetent Wsdot & SDOT directors and department heads, the chamber of commerce, downtown business associations and assorted cronies whose love for Seattle is diminished before their love of money, prestige and above all from their freudian Olympic pinnacle, a manipulative power to mislead and abuse a population of peons.

The bored tunnel is dangerous, but those most to blame for its predictable failure will feign regret in public but enjoy unaffected laughs in private.

In fact, since it was the 70s, they might have been able to lure him onto the Princess Marguerite with the promise of 'aving a crumpet n' tea, then steamed him directly to Japan.

But over the Olympics? Pretty inefficient. Typical Seattle.

While articles like this are designed to slam the door on the AWV story the truth remains that there are still a majority of voters who would choose to replace the viaduct if ever given an honest forum in which vote. This most recent charade is as much of a distraction from the truth as was the phony referendum of 2007. It's amazing to me that this article would fail to even mention this facet of the AWV story.

The tunnel has now almost reached poster-project status for virtually everything that’s wrong with the country. Tax payers experience reduced service, quality of life, and value in their own cities while footing the bill for needlessly expensive projects and self-serving agendas benefitting a few powerful special interests. I invite you again to get a pencil and a map of downtown and discover where this tunnel actually goes and who it actually benefits.

It’s enough to upset the Godzilla Squad all over again.

Hopefully still time to do the right thing.

We will know in 5.5 years, if it were ST we would know in 8, if it were a new elevated we would know in 10.

The state road goes under ground and as big as it is for 100+ years, with the train tunnel, and the bus/LR tunnel.

Judging from the visualization (above,) if you wanted a highway on the waterfront, you'll get it.

Are you sure about the 10 years for the new elevated? More has been spent on PR firms pitching the tunnel than on truthfully evaluating a new elevated.

Two sham, advisory, non-binding, meaningless, worthless votes (March 14, 2007, and yesterday) on SR99 and its most talked about 2 mile stretch give us the pre-ordained desired result by all the downtown pooh-bahs. Tearing down the viaduct and Kingdome both are nothing more than exercises in flexing aesthetic muscles while exhibiting classic inferiority complex insecurities. Safety has never been a valid issue; much of Pioneer Square is far more earthquake vulnerable than the viaduct. The public works gravy train rolls on for all the usual suspects as they fight over billions of cosmetic construction dollars. Snoqualman is correct; be smart and figure out for yourself how not to have to pay for this travesty as we all await being stuck in a congested, 2 lane and merging lane tunnel.

@Bluelight: Precisely my point.

@jmrolls (and others): Although the process that lead to the today's election results may not have been entirely fair, a majority in favor of one option in a straight up or down vote is the best solution that could foreseeably be reached. Because a three (or four) option vote would inevitably produce only a winner by plurality, a straight up and down vote was necessary. By making it an up or down vote, the voters were able to say, "this option is acceptable," the best endoresment possible in this instance.

Additioinally, I don't see how the vote could have been made any fairer. Had the state picked a different "horse" to run with things may have been different However, the voting process would still be unfair no matter which option was prefferred. Also that arguement fails to consider the compremising forces that went into the Tunnel agreement in the first place. While I'm dissappointed with the result, to say the process was a sham is a stretch.

This transportation project was sub-optimized by special interests who intentionally lobbied for two inferior solutions (tunnel or surface) so that the superior existing configuration (elevated) would be torn down with no consideration for replacement. The non-transportation related motives for this, I assume, was to reconfigure and enhance real estate in a small portion of the city. It is my belief that mobility, access and capacity for area commuters will greatly suffer and tax payers will pay extra billions to benefit one downtown neighborhood.

As I said earlier, this vote is an irrelevant distraction as was the phony referendum in 2007. I appreciate and understand what you’re trying say about the process of mixing apples and bowling balls but please realize that It was “designed” to get you to worry about the boat, so that you would forget about the river.

Last night's vote was the last nail in the political coffins of the elevated rebuild and Mayor Mike McGinn. Those are the facts, everything else is just talk.

I hope some of you who read my previous post, got its meaning, just how much a mistake this tunnel is and how you have no frickin idea how dangerous, you freakin fools...

Honestly, I can & have framed my perspective analysis with care and high regard for Seattle's future, many times. A dangerous mistake in its engineering is driving many to absolute opposition on the basis of VERY HIGH risk. Risk, something some engineers don't ignore.

Those who know it's a mistake, You soldier on. Join any ANY other group/organization still against the damn DBT MISTAKE of your damn History.
Seek (Hydrologists), structural engineers, traffic management (experts & non-experts good work), Waterway and Sound Estuary restoration clubs, their members of hikers & grove trimmers & organizations who can predict how the waterfront will be affected by the whole design.

The DBT won't be good, I'm telling you. The DOTs have screwed Seattle over so bad it's unbelieveable. The basic hydrological alteration is "absolutely unacceptable" as I have explained many times. Seattle CANNOT further destablize the waterfront soils.

Picture a cut-cover instead leaving the hydrology as is, the wall moved 80' east. Some basic seawall can still be moved east tens of feet. Subsurface hydrology endures a minor change & its drainage re-ordered to work better/cleaner. The softest soils are minimized and solidified.
You guys know I'm yer analyist, c'mon.

It's a mistake. The mayor is right. Reckless drivers were the most of the voters, I'll just bet. Reckless Drivers Passed a Referendumb. Ain't that how it's spelt?

Keep fighting. Press charges. Wsdot cheated on most studies; doubtful veracity. Cancel the tunnel contract.
lol
screwU DoHwys lol

Take your meds, dude.

jmrolls, yes, 10 years. That was a deal breaker for me.

To get the surface option you pretty much have to use the elevated plan out to stage 5. You might be able to shave a few weeks here and there on switching and detours, but you are stuck with all of the much of that until the utilities could be permanently relocated, and I-5 could be reworked, as well as all of the deconstruction and hauling away of the old structure. You do not regain what little capacity there is until those trucks full of crushed road are gone.

http://data.wsdot.wa.gov/publications/viaduct/06_AWVFEIS_Chapter6_ConstructionEffects.pdf

EIS home page is here.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/library-environmental.htm#2011feis

More's the pity -Mannix, more's the pity.

But please do buy Carey and Samantha a Mojito for me. Sorry I can't meet with you guys downtown because I, you know...have to work.

I respect your opinion -Mr Baker, just don't buy it. First I am NOT an advocate of either of the options voted on in this latest fake vote. I endorse, like the majority of voters, a rebuilt viaduct.

The structure is not a contiguous structure...it's like 3 tables sitting end to end. And again, I don't believe any of the estimates on timing because it was never favored as a solution. How many solutions do you think there might have been if the FIX hadn't be in and the goal was to actually retain and elevated solution?

Anyway this tunnel/surface option is a giant step backwards for Seattle.

jmrolls, you are not accepting or rejecting my opinion but the EIS estimate.
For the portions that are the same elements the duration does not get much better or worse.

When the viaduct comes down there will be a tunnel to take some of the through capacity. I don't really see how other options do that sooner.

How much does a year of disruption cost?

To Jan: "a generous electorate" and "growing class of rich?" Then why am I taking a 1.9% pay cut? Teacher here. Promises promises. Well, the tunnel will make a lot of them richer.

McGinn: He's a people's guy regardless of the tunnel vote. I think he'll prove his worth in the long run. He's a smart man, not a team player and acts on his convictions. We need a whole more of that. I regular people know that. Besides, this was an August vote and one which, as usual, was in backward speak. I know, I know, informed people knew what "retract" meant in this case. But, why can't they just say "Do you want the tunnel: yes or no?"

We are in for another boondoggle I fear.

That's another myth Mr Baker. The tunnel doesn't go "through" anything. It doesn't follow the AWV route. It terminates near Seattle Center and SLU. You know, kind of a nice little 2 billion dollar route for limos coming from the airport. But the rest of the traffic must find a way from there.

That's why I've been suggesting that people look at a map and discover that there will be "NO" bypass for downtown. How does that register on your "disruption" meter?

Sounds like a lot of misinformed voters out there. Even among the "informed." As a very average person with a very average paycheck and bank account, it saddens me.

'That's another myth Mr Baker. The tunnel doesn't go "through" anything. It doesn't follow the AWV route. It terminates near Seattle Center and SLU. You know, kind of a nice little 2 billion dollar route for limos coming from the airport. But the rest of the traffic must find a way from there.

That's why I've been suggesting that people look at a map and discover that there will be "NO" bypass for downtown. How does that register on your "disruption" meter?'

See http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/boredtunnelportals.htm#north

Looks to me like the DBT terminates at Aurora, is a through route and does bypass downtown.

Agreed with BiffNotZeem. Like it or not, the DBT does let a driver avoid surface streets between Royal Brougham and Denny Way - which is a sizable chunk of Downtown that is a real P.I.T.A to navigate as it is....

"and growing class of incredibly rich people who will invest in the future"

The state is broke and the future is not in driving more cars. The idea to spend several billion dollars on a short car tunnel is "incredibly rich", that much I'll give ya.

There will never be an end to this discussion, will there. When the damned 56-foot diameter boring machine is in there, boring away, getting stuck, whatever, you will all be boring away on blogs, claiming "It's not too late to blahblahblah". But it is.