what it could for reuse. Hitachi also donated pieces of the cutterhead to the Port of Seattle and gave Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry several cutting tools and the TBM’s control panel for future display. Waterfront Seattle The completed tunnel opened to traffic on Feb. 4, 2019 following a weekend grand opening celebration where the public had an opportu- nity to walk through the tunnel and learn more about the city’s plans for the waterfront—a section of the city that had long been cut off from the rest of the city by the unwieldy and noisy viaduct. In addition to making travel safer, WSDOT officials also recognized that replacing the viaduct provided the city with an opportunity to restore access between downtown and a revitalized waterfront area. “By its nature, moving transportation corridors underground frees up a lot of valuable surface land,” said Mike Colyn, WSP’s project manager for Waterfront Seattle. “The AWV Program’s completion provides nine acres of new open space adjacent to the downtown Seattle waterfront and gives the waterfront back to the public.” With demolition of the viaduct completed in November 2019, attention has now turned to waterfront improvements. Waterfront Seattle is a $688 million program designed to reinvigorate the waterfront as an inviting, lively and family-friendly public space; connecting residents and visitors with cultural, commercial and civic destinations, and fostering growth and development opportunities for area businesses and nearby neighborhoods. WSP is part of the team helping deliver this new amenity. As a sub- consultant to the City of Seattle, WSP is leading the engineering component of the project and has provided 3D design visualization, cost risk assessment, project management, civil engineering, traffic engineering, stormwater management, storm drainage, electrical duct banks, risk management, and structural design support.
Although waterfront construction should be complete in 2024, seg- ments of the waterfront will open this year, including the newly rebuilt Pier 62, which will provide views of Elliott Bay and the city skyline, as well as a floating dock for boating. Eventually the waterfront will feature parks, bike paths, playgrounds, a seawall, and improved road access to the area. ACEC Grand Award The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program has been recognized with multiple honors, including the 2019 Grand Conceptor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) as the best overall engineering project in the U.S. That award followed wins of the ACEC national 2019 Engineering Ex- cellence Grand Award for Transportation and the ACEC-Washington Gold Award for Transportation. “The success of the project is not just measured by the tunnel’s com- pletion or the awards, but by the success and the careers of the team of people whose hard work completed it,” Lalonde said. “It’s truly amazing that the tunnel is completed and to watch how the program is transforming the City of Seattle.” Rigsby added that the program’s complexity “attracted the best people from around the company and around the country,” who rose to meet every challenge along the way. “I grew and learned so much about environmental, engineering, urban design, public involvement and so much more,” he said. “The technical complexity of planning, getting environmental clearance, and helping to contract for the largest bored tunnel in the history of the world was amazing. We were literally pushing the state of the art and involving every discipline.”
Photo: Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)
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