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Eight years in, Seattle ready to study ‘engineering and financial feasibility’ of lidding I-5

It’s a Seattle Freeway Revolt of a different sort and now the city has the money to execute an engineering and financial feasibility study of the potential benefits “for covering more of the I-5 freeway trench in central Seattle.”

The $1.5 million in funding from the Washington State Convention Center expansion’s $83 million public benefits package is now available to the City of Seattle and an advisory council has been formed, the Lid I-5 community group announced last week:

The study funding enables OPCD to procure an expert consultant team with qualifications in civil and structural engineering, economic analysis, urban design, and environmental mitigation. The study is expected to last through 2019 and will inform the next steps in lid design, planning, permitting, and capital funding. Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) staff will be engaged during the process. Recent and ongoing freeway lid projects – including in Bellevue, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Philadelphia – provide helpful case studies and a pool of experienced specialists that Seattle’s effort can draw from.

 

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“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix a past mistake,” Lyle Bicknell, who is managing the study project for the Seattle Office of Planning & Community Development, said in the announcement of the funding. “And we want everyone to be involved in the solution…this project is made better when everybody has a chance for meaningful input.”

An advisory council “of distinguished experts and community members” has also been formed to assist “with technical guidance, long-term strategy, community engagement, and fundraising.”

The study and formation of the new council follows a yearlong community design process to explore concepts for lidding I-5 that would include green spaces and public parks, schools, and affordable housing developments.

Already eight years into the process, the push to further lid I-5 between downtown and Capitol Hill will be a decades-long endeavor. WSDOT owns I-5 and the land along it and will be need to be convinced of the needs and value. And, of course, there will need to be much bigger checks in the future. Covering the freeway could end up a multi-billion-dollar civic project.

 

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Daniel L Baker
Daniel L Baker
5 years ago

You mean more places for the homeless to build their tent-cities.

dflt
dflt
5 years ago

Outlandish civil engineering costs aside, why is the City of Seattle performing a financial feasibility study for what would be a state project, on a state right-of-way?

Then again, the state could make a handsome profit off of leasing the footprint to developers & to the City of Seattle.

Trotsky
Trotsky
5 years ago

Maybe we should figure out how to get people to stop shitting, building houses, and shooting dope on the sidewalks before we start in on something like this…that would make it impossible to reconfigure, expand, or reconfigure an interstate.

Daniel L Baker
Daniel L Baker
5 years ago
Reply to  Trotsky

I agree with this. Lets fix the real problems before starting in on the cosmetic ones.

Chico Ramirez
Chico Ramirez
5 years ago

I would love this, but really? Don’t we have a few $BBs committed towards the Link Light Rail till my grandkids go to college? Shovels aren’t in the ground for most of those projects and we are already blowing well past the cost estimates.

Daniel L Baker
Daniel L Baker
5 years ago
Reply to  Chico Ramirez

Inflation. Every project under the sun will always go above cost due to inflation or greed. Everyone wants top dollar for their property now that it’s known where the rail line will go. Can’t blame the agency.

d reeves
d reeves
5 years ago

Love it. This would be a huge quality of life improvement for almost 100,000 people who live close to downtown.

Kudos to the people and organizations pushing this forward.

Timmy73
Timmy73
5 years ago
Reply to  d reeves

Instead of improving the lives of those who’ve chosen to live near the freeway, I’d rather see us support those with real needs. Too many in our city are suffering mental health crisis, addiction, homelessness. We have a crumbling infrastructure. We’re being taxed and levied to death….

But yes, let’s invest billions to lid a tiny portion of freeway to improve the senses of those who’ve chosen to live near it.

Jeff
Jeff
5 years ago
Reply to  Timmy73

Tell that to the Seattle voter …Ive never seen a levy / tax they don’t love.