Hello, I wanted to share this article with you concering the seawall. Here’s an article from Publicola:
The latest version of the downtown seawall proposal, which city transportation staffers will introduce at the city council meeting on Monday, projects that the project will cost about $325 million—$32 million less than the original projection of $365 million. (Yes, this is kind of a burn on me.) That higher projection was based on 10 percent project design; the lower projection, which would be funded in part by voter-approved bonds and in part (to the tune of $40 million) by the King County Flood Control District, is based on 35 percent design.
The proposal includes things like a multi-use bike and pedestrian path, a new “pocket beach” on the south end of the waterfront, habitat enhancements and artificial reefs for fish and other sea life, and soil stabilization with jet grouting (as opposed to shafts drilled into the ground).
Of the $325 million, $300 million is for construction of the new seawall itself (including everything from soil stabilization—the biggest chunk, necessary because the soil near the waterfront is mostly made of fill that can liquify during an earthquake, destabilizing everything that sits on it), habitat restoration, the new surface Alaskan Way, and contingency. The contingency is now $48 million, less than the $81 million in the original plan. That’s a reduction from a contingency of 30 percent to a contingency of 25 percent, a decrease SDOT attributes to the fact that seawall design is further along.
The city council will vote Monday on a resolution to move forward on preparing a seawall funding measure for the November ballot. In June, they’ll hold public hearings on the proposal, and they’ll vote on a final seawall bond measure in July.
