...not in the sense that the Rams have problems scoring touchdowns, but rather in viewing the aerial shots of downtown Seattle. Those views showed how downtown Seattle is cut off from its Puget Sound waterfront by the elevated Alaskan Viaduct highway structure.
City to River is proposing the idea of highway removal in downtown St. Louis. The City to River concept is to reconnect downtown St. Louis to its riverfront by replacing the depressed and elevated lanes of the soon-to-be-former lanes of I-70 through downtown with an at-grade boulevard.
Perhaps City to River should be setting its sights higher? Rather than simply highway removal, the Seattle project proposes a combined highway replacement with new connections to its waterfront. The price tag? Over $3 billion.
3 comments:
We don't need a 3BillionUSD boondoggle such as Seattle's pols feel they need. This proposal is rather unpopular in that City with everyone except the mayor and the guv, and of course the potential builders. I know, hypothetical question, but still, this is a bad idea for our area. San Fran did a great job with their waterfront. We should follow their lead.
Same could be said for Boston's Big Dig. Big dollars, but end result was that it kept an interstate connection intact.
Would St. Louis accept all out highway removal through its riverfront area?
It's not enough for City to River to support the concept. Such a plan requires full regional cooperation.
Maybe the plan would get more supporters if it offered highway replacement instead of total removal?
Samizdat has it right...as a St. Louisan currently living in Seattle I can attest that you couldn't find a move divisive issue in the region. Billions of dollars to reduce volume, no exits/entrances for Downtown Seattle, tunneling in a fill-zone on a fault line, and forcing the city to cover the cost-overruns...not exactly the best example for the STL to emulate.
Now, having said that, if the STL region could make a trade: do the city to river plan and allow the South-County connector to proceed and relieve some N/S commuting... might be worth it. In Seattle, the best idea would be to either retrofit the existing structure or to tear it down and implement regional transit improvements and general roadway improvements with the money you save...
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