COSTLY TUNNEL NOT THE PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE FOR ALL

'Working Families Deserve Better'

SEATTLE - Council President Nick Licata and Councilmember David J. Della issue the following statements in response to today's decision by a majority of councilmembers to recommend to the state that the tunnel is Seattle's preferred alternative for replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Councilmember Della, an advocate for rebuilding the Viaduct as an elevated structure with available funds and a supporter of an advisory vote on the issue, stated, "I don't think that we can comfortably say that the most expensive and unaffordable option is the preference of the people of Seattle. We had an opportunity to gauge the public's opinion by floating an advisory measure and should have done so. I think tunnel advocates were just too afraid to discover that a majority does not support pricing working families out of our city all in the name of better views. Working families deserve a choice and they deserve an alternative that is affordable."

Council President Licata, who sponsored legislation that would have put an advisory measure with cost estimates on this November's ballot, added, "Tunnel vision is taking our city deeper into a black hole of insufficient revenues and unknown costs. The tunnel is the most expensive option and will be the most expensive project in the history of our city. The fact that a tunnel will dry up so much of our revenue should have been the driver of our discussion-not aesthetics."