The comparisions to The Embarcadero are many and appropriate. Both The Embarcadero and the Seattle Waterfront Viaduct featured double - deck concrete highways, built in the early 1950's to very similar designs, and emplaced in the mud, muck, and debris from early - day disasters ( The 1906 Earthquake and the Seattle Fire). Both structures are / were an immediate eyesore and continuing maintenance headache. Both structures were designed to allow railroad tracks to be operated under them at street level.
After the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989, The Embarcadero Freeway was damaged to the point that it had to be demolished. After the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001, " The Viaduct " was damaged to the point it should have been demolished, ( I recall reading a WS - DOT report at the time that recommended it.), HOWEVER The Viaduct was not torn down due to its' greater useage vs. The Embarcadero Freeway. The Viaduct serves as a vital link in State Hwy. 99 between South & West Seattle and North Seattle. Tearing down The Viaduct before a suitable replacement roadway is opened would totally gridlock traffic in much of Downtown Seattle. So we have The Seattle Tunnel Partners (aka: STP, with apologies to Andy Granatelli & Richard Petty ). The primary contractor for STP is Tudor - Sabila, a construction firm with more lawyers on its' payroll than engineers !!! ( Can you say Litigation, boys & girls ??? )
I have been advocating a solution for the Seattle Viaduct mess that doesn't involve dumping Billions of Taxpayer Dollars into a hole in the ground. Just tear down The Viaduct and replace it with a broad, 6 or 8 lane boulevard in a cut & cover trench. Make the 2 inside lanes in each direction express lanes between a new, wider Battery Street Tunnel on the North, and the West Seattle Bridge on the South. Then we could have a return of the Waterfront Trolley on the surface, as well as local street access and parking. Now take all the money that would be saved, and finish the Valley Freeway Hwy. 167 from Puyallup to Interstate 5 at Fife AND finish the North - South Freeway Hwy. 2 in Spokane AND maybe help fund a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River at Vancouver.
Or does this all make too much sense ???