(5:11 pm note – The hearing’s over; when we get code for the archived video, we’ll swap it out)

2:51 PM REPORT: Hit the “play” button to watch live – despite the slate you see, it IS in progress now. This meeting of the City Council’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Committee is the third of three events that we mentioned this morning. City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw just said about sixty people have signed up to speak in the public comment section, which has just begun, before the council discusses the proposed resolution announced this morning – which would say, the city intends to sign the tunnel agreements, but wants to see the bids (this fall) first. Here’s a photo sent by council staff via Twitter, showing the SRO crowd:

4:27 PM: The public hearing ended after about an hour and a half – primarily pro-tunnel – and has moved on into the councilmembers talking with a state team headed by Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, who said, “Delay is not our friend” and insists that risk management is her team’s job. Meantime, Mayor McGinn’s reaction to the council’s “we’re passing a resolution but not signing yet” plan has finally come in – read on:

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If you are following the ongoing almost-a-soap-opera-sometimes about the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s Central Waterfront Project tunnel proposal, and the City Council and Mayor’s conflicting opinions about whether amended agreements protect the city from the cost-overrun responsibility the Legislature wrote into the original bill – three things you’ll want to watch today (and of course we’ll be watching too). First, the Council gets a briefing from City Attorney Pete Holmes during its 9:30 am meeting; second, seven council members (all except Mike O’Brien and Bruce Harrell) and Holmes plan an 11:30 am news conference; third, the council’s special Alaskan Way Viaduct committee takes up the agreements at 2:30 pm. The folks at Seattle Channel tell us all of the above will be streamed live online, at www.seattlechannel.org/councillive. 10:41 AM UPDATE: The 1st discussion has just begun (apparently delayed while city legal staff put “finishing touches” on documentation). Councilmember Sally Bagshaw says the council will propose and vote on a resolution indicating their commitment to proceed, BUT will not sign the agreements till early next year, after seeing the proposals (bids) to be opened this fall. 11:45 AM: The council’s media briefing is under way now. It was noted that the council’s resolution is not subject to mayoral veto; he can decline to sign it, but it doesn’t require signature to move forward, since it’s non-binding.

(WSDOT’s “South Portal Design Concept” showing where the new Hwy. 99 south-end would meet the tunnel)
The South Portal Working Group, an advisory panel working with the state/city/county/port on how Highway 99 and what’s around it will flow toward West Seattle (and beyond), was offered the chance to stop meeting till fall – but its members, including West Seattle reps, said they thought there were too many important issues to discuss. So, they’re meeting again this month, and the date has just been announced: 4 pm July 28, board room at Union Station (401 S. Jackson). These meetings are open to the public. And if you have viaduct-related questions in the meantime, do note that WSDOT has a booth at West Seattle Summer Fest this weekend (#26; here’s the map).

It was all smiles for the ceremonial shovel-turning that concluded the kickoff event for the Alaskan Way Viaduct South End (Holgate to King) project this afternoon – but in the round of speeches that preceded it, some sharp words over the “next” AWV project, the one to replace the elevated structure along the central waterfront. The event included a long line of mostly elected officials on stage, with dozens of union-banner-displaying workers and a few sign-wielding tunnel opponents.

Mayor Mike McGinn alluded to his tunnel concerns but went on to say he didn’t think this was the time and place to talk about them; nonetheless, those who took the podium right after him – including Tom Rasmussen, one of seven Seattle City Councilmembers onstage – promptly proclaimed their strong support for the tunnel. (Hear them both in this next clip, with state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond – filling in for Gov. Gregoire, who had a sudden trip to D.C. – inbetween:)

Shortly afterward, Seattle Port Commissioner Bill Bryant (below) went so far as to say the process that resulted in the tunnel choice had included hundreds of meetings and thousands of public comments, so, he all but shouted, “Enough already! We cannot wait another day” to build the tunnel.

That project, however, is still at least a year-plus out; south end work starts now. More video and photos shortly; meantime, click ahead for the official news release sent by WSDOT afterward:Read More

(Screengrab from the interactive simulation – be sure to note the upper-right area to choose perspectives)
In advance of this afternoon’s Alaskan Way Viaduct South End Replacement Project groundbreaking ceremony, we asked WSDOT for the newest images – some of which were shown at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce briefing we covered last week. Even better, we just received this link to share – it’s a new simulation you can use to walk through the next three years of south end construction (this is the mile SOUTH of the proposed tunnel), step by step. (Background info – and more “survive the construction work” links – can be found here.)

(WSDOT’s “South Portal Design Concept” showing where South End Replacement would meet the tunnel)
Though ceremonial groundbreaking for the South End Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement is a week away, the project contract is actually on Day 8, according to WSDOT’s Matt Preedy, who is briefing the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce right now on what’s ahead for this major project. We’re at the briefing at the Senior Center of West Seattle, and are also expecting a city briefing afterward on the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project. Preedy says that on The Viaduct itself, you won’t see traffic effects this year – the first phases of work will be on the surface alongside, with street work in the Terminal 46 area, then the new bike/pedestrian path. One major note: On July 6, he says, the 150+ parking spaces under The Viaduct between Royal Brougham and Railroad will be fenced off and gone forever – that’ll be part of the construction zone. 1:07 PM UPDATE: Briefing over. Other key dates: From SDOT’s Paul Elliott, the new 4th Avenue offramp (aka “The Costco Offramp”) from the Spokane Street Viaduct is still on track to open in late summer, and there’s a tentative start date for the work to fuse it to the existing structure – which will close one eastbound lane for up to six weeks – July 7. Elliott also says the new westbound 1st Avenue on/offramp may open as soon as next summer. And he indicated the “voluntary” program for advance notice of “low bridge” vessel openings isn’t making much of a difference – they’re not getting much advance notice, and the number of openings seems to be only slightly reduced, if at all.

(Also a reminder, the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be closed this Saturday for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon – WSDOT now says the closure starts both ways at 4 am, reopening southbound by 1:15 pm, northbound by 4 pm.)

Via Facebook, Robert noted that next Saturday’s Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon came up at West Seattle Runner during yesterday’s kickoff party for the Alki Beach 5K in August – and that it was the first he’d heard of next Saturday’s marathon closing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. So, it seems like time to start the reminders: Next Saturday (June 26), The Viaduct closes in both directions at 5 am. Southbound is supposed to reopen at 1;15, but northbound not till 4 pm. This is all according to the road closure plan on the marathon’s website (which includes other closures elsewhere in the metro area). Side note: What makes it Rock ‘n’ Roll is the live music promised “every mile,” by local musicians – here’s the list, which includes some acts you can see in The Junction during West Seattle Summer Fest (co-sponsored by WSB) in three weeks – Massy Ferguson and Kris Orlowski.

This hasn’t been formally announced yet but we just found it on the Alaskan Way Viaduct project website’s “Public Events” page: Another public meeting for information about the viaduct-replacement project (not just the tunnel but also the south end replacement, which starts work soon) is set for West Seattle – 6-8 pm April 27, Madison Middle School. ADDED 8:01 AM: One of West Seattle’s reps on the project’s South Portal Working Group, Pete Spalding, says you also have a chance before then to get updated on the major transportation projects affecting our area: SDOT will be at the April 21 Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting to “discuss all of the closures and related items involving the Spokane Street Viaduct project,” and Alaskan Way Viaduct reps will “make a presentation on where things stand with this project.” DNDC meets at Youngstown Arts Center, 7 pm 4/21.

Earlier this week, we brought you this story looking ahead at the “staging” for how Alaskan Way Viaduct construction will affect SODO-to-West Seattle Bridge traffic over the next five-plus years. In that story, we linked somewhat-complicated maps shown to the South Portal Working Group on Tuesday. Today, for those interested in planning ahead, the Viaduct team just sent us a user-friendlier version of the same info, drawn up in time for the North Portal Working Group‘s meeting last night. The graphic above is the first page; see the whole thing here. (Also, the project website now links to the slides from a separate section of the presentation we covered on Tuesday.) Reminder, this is just the work related to what the state is doing about The Viaduct – NOT nearby projects such as the city-owned Spokane Street Viaduct. (P.S. Another reminder – the Alaskan Way Viaduct is scheduled to close 6 am-6 pm both days this weekend for its semiannual checkup.)

ADDED 2:40 PM: One more Viaduct note – some work planned for next week – here’s the advisory from SDOT:

Seattle Department of Transportation crews plan to close the southbound, right and left lanes (one at a time) on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, south of the First Avenue off-ramp, next week for maintenance. They will start the work this weekend, taking advantage of the closure already scheduled for inspection of the viaduct, and continue from Monday (March 29) to Friday (April 5) between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day. The crews will work on an overhead rail beam.

Crews will also close the northbound, left lane of the Alaskan Way Viaduct at Massachusetts Street to repair a damaged rail. They plan this closure for Monday (March 29) through Wednesday (March 31) from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

That’s the newest WSDOT video simulation taking you underground along the route of the “proposed bored tunnel.” Why do official documents – even the opening slate of the video – still call it “proposed”? That was one of the questions asked at Tuesday’s meeting of the South Portal Working Group, which meets periodically to receive and review new information about all the changes in the works for the transportation network feeding into this side of The Viaduct. Read on for the answer, as well as the toplines from the main focus of the meeting – how construction will be “staged” over the next five-plus years:Read More

That’s one of the sketches shown at the last meeting of the Alaskan Way Viaduct South Portal Working Group, which had asked for better visual representations of the new tunnel route as it crossed under the current viaduct and approached the seawall. When we covered the most recent meeting of this group – tasked with discussing and vetting plans for how traffic will be handled south of the viaduct’s Central Waterfront section — its next date hadn’t yet been set, but now it has: March 23, 4 pm, Puget Sound Regional Council board room (1011 Western Avenue). At the January meeting, it was promised that this meeting will include more on upcoming construction staging, as well as how various scenarios would affect biking, walking and transit times. The public’s welcome at these meetings; here’s a map to PSRC offices.