A Disaster Waiting To Happen

The Seattle Times main Sunday story is about how ready Seattle is for a catastrophe. Highly recommended reading.

In it they have a couple of photos of the Alaskan Way Viaduct that surely must drive the point across that we need to address this disaster waiting to happen.

(Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times) A crumbling concrete
pillar holding up the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle

This is all that is keeping the double-decker roadway from collapsing. Experts indicate another earthquake of the kind experienced in 2001, will be enough to topple the structure.

If this isn't an emergency issue that needs to be funded, then I can't think of what would be, other than waiting until the Viaduct has already pancaked to act.

Earlier this year the Washington state legislature passed a critical transportation funding bill that would raise $2 billion for a replacement project for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, while also fully funding 241 other safety and congestion projects around the state. I-912 is looking to eliminate $5.5 billion worth of that funding, effectively eliminating a critical source of money for the Viaduct and all those other projects. I-912 is bad politics being played at the risk of our safety.

We must not neglect the very real needs of our aging transportation infrastructure, and exposed rebar and crumbling concrete are visual reminders of just how real those need are.