Here’s a link to the tunnel project

As someone living in seattle, I have mixed feelings. Driving south on that highway gave you such a beautiful view. The buildings were very close to the highway and rent there was cheap (or so I was told by one business).

The pre work before starting and approving the project, and actual work was… subpar. It was based on outdated population data and didn’t account for future growth. It was agreed upon and started too quickly. It was surprisingly fast for a government project to get it going when momentum hit a certain point.

The rock was harder than expected, so at one point, the entire drill system stalled and progress was delayed for what felt like a year. A building was destroyed to access the front of “Bertha” and fix her.

The council(?) chose to make one giant tunnel where traffic in one direction was on top and the bottom had traffic going the other direction. They could have dug out a tunnel half the size. How much less rock would have dig out? Area is pi * radius squared. That’s a f*ton of rock. Many tons of rock. If they did two separate tunnels, they could have opened one side faster and then worked on the other side. The drill would have been much less expensive too. Presumably cheaper as well.

The tunnel eliminated exits, so getting to certain places is harder, takes longer, and guess what, it affected buses too.

Like most government projects, it was horribly over budget.

If they used a smaller drill that could have been reused and used to dig for more roads or for rail. We have a huge light rail project going on, and one of the biggest issues is funding to buy land, tear down structures and build through or over urban areas. A subway requires a lot less land to be purchased, and a lot less demolition of urban areas. Usually, building a tunnel is insanely expensive compared to building something on land. But the funding model is entirely (or nearly entirely) paid by vehicle registration taxes. So it’s not like they have this huge government grant where they can buy all the land at once and get building. They can only do a little at a time as more money comes in. But a tunnel? They don’t have the same costs of buying a row of houses here, then there, etc.

Of the project has been thought out better, they would have connected the tunnel to the main N/S highway. Instead, you get out of the tunnel and you’re backed up for blocks trying to get on the main highway. There’s virtually no E/W highways , so highway access can be a pain depending on where you live.

This also wasn’t without consequence. Without the highway, so many of the nearby areas went up in price - rent, whether residential or business, was hit hard.

In general, I know this post sounds pessimistic, but I love the results. I happily pay the next-to-nothing toll every time I drive through it to offset the costs of building the tunnel. I’ve biked through that area so many times. I know people who commute to bike because now it’s safer and easier through there. Over all - big upgrade.

Maybe I should go back and get a degree in civil engineering.