Alaskan Way Seawall

The Alaskan Way Seawall is a seawall which runs for approximately 7,166 feet (2,184 m) along the Elliott Bay waterfront southwest of downtown Seattle from Bay Street to S. Washington Street.[1] The seawall is being rebuilt in the 2010s as part of a waterfront redevelopment megaproject estimated to cost over $1 billion.[2]

Seawall construction, 1934

History
First slab of Seattle Central Waterfront seawall being placed, 1934
Seawall inspection, 1954
Seawall replacement, 2015. Pier 54 at left.

The seawall was built to provide level access to Seattle's piers and supports the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Alaskan Way itself, which is a surface street. Completed in 1934, the seawall was built on top of wood piling.

Replacement

Despite efforts to prevent marine pest damage when the seawall was designed, after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the Seattle Department of Transportation found that gribbles had consumed all the wooden supports in some places.[3]

The Washington State Department of Transportation states that there is a 1-in-20 chance that it could be shut down by an earthquake within the next decade,[4] and so plans have been underway to replace both seawall and viaduct.

The seawall rebuild project was estimated to cost $350 million as part of an overall waterfront redevelopment budgeted in 2012 at $1.07 billion.[2][5] The project is funded by a bond measure that was approved by Seattle voters in the November 2012 general election.[6] Construction began in 2013 and was completed in 2017, more than a year late and costing $410 million.[7][8][9]

See also

References
  1. "Determination of Significance and Request for Comments on Scope of EIS" (PDF). Seattle Department of Transportation. May 27, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  2. Daniel Beekman (September 29, 2014), "With costs up, mayor wants to roll back Seattle waterfront plan", The Seattle Times
  3. John Roach (April 23, 2004), "Seattle Waterfront Falling to Gribble Invasion", National Geographic
  4. Alaskan Way viaduct project, Washington State Department of Transportation
  5. Ellis E. Conklin (September 30, 2014), "Bertha Strikes Again: Stalled Tunnel Project Will Cause City to Downsize Waterfront Plan; Sigh", Seattle Weekly, archived from the original on October 6, 2014, retrieved October 3, 2014
  6. Johnson, Kirk (December 5, 2012). "Engineering Projects Will Transform Seattle, All Along the Waterfront". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  7. Christensen, Ken (May 17, 2017). "Seattle's new seawall: Holding back the tide, protecting salmon". Crosscut.com. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  8. Beekman, Daniel (August 21, 2015). "Seawall project $71 million over budget". The Seattle Times. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  9. Daniels, Chris; Hahn, Elisa; Brand, Natalie (September 14, 2015). "Seattle seawall delayed, millions over budget". KING 5 News. Archived from the original on October 26, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015.


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