Color me surprised.
Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct is in such poor shape that a reasonably sizeable earthquake would topple it—so local leaders have been trying to find a replacement for the last few years. There have been three somewhat viable solutions proposed: rebuild it, replace it with a surface street, or replace it with a tunnel and build on top.
The tunnel was by far the most costly but I think it's the right thing for our infrastructure1. I also thought—up until tonight, that is—that it would be incredibly unlikely that it would be the final choice (owing primarily to cost).
But it looks like many of our state and local executives announced today unified support for the tunnel option, leaving only legislative leaders in opposition. So we're much closer to a solution now than ever before—and in my mind, it's even the right solution.
1 Modern cities are strangled by transportation woes and lost productivity more than makes up for the capital costs to do it right from the start. Plus, I've played SimCity and I know how important it is to lay rail lines down early even though they cost $30 a square.
I was surprised, too. Now, hopefully it won't take another 20 years to build the thing.
20 years to negotiate, 20 years to build. Celerity has never been a property of public works.
--D
"celerity." Wow. I haven't heard that word since middle school when I was into RPGs, and it was a character trait.
Maybe this is a sign you should be playing more RPGs.