As briefly reported here, Lloyd Hara, Seattle port commission co-chairman, said Monday that the commission has not yet committed money toward construction of a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and won't until after next year's budget review, which begins next month.
I think that's kind of silly on their part to wait, for two reasons. One is that, from this years budget, they should have a pretty good idea of what the upcoming budget is going to look like, which should enable them to get some "ballpark" figures for the accountants to at least begin preliminary work on.
But the main reason that I think this is silly is that the main source of revenue for the Port of Seattle is containerized shipping, and the vast majority of the containers that move to and from the port facilities is done by trucks. Trucks that primarily use the Alaskan Way Viaduct, making that a vital route for the businesses that ship things to and from Seattle.
Although October is right around the corner, you would think that the Port of Seattle, which would seem to have a vested interest in whatever happens to the Alaskan Way Viaduct, would be chomping at the bit - NOW - to get this process moving. But, instead, they are going to wait.
How their delay will impact the overall project remains to be seen, but as the Port of Seattle is a government entity, the delay won't be short, so it is quite possible that there could be a significant impact, which won't be good.
Commissioner Hara needs to rethink his position, and get the accountants geared up sooner, rather than later.
No comments:
Post a Comment