Urban Mobility Plan

In May 2007, the Seattle City Council requested the Seattle Department of Transportation develop an Urban Mobility Plan as a solution for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. SDOT was requested to use a systems approach in the Urban Mobility Plan, including enhanced transit service, surface street and highway improvements and other transportation programs and policies. The plan was intended to focus on the movement of people and goods to and through Downtown, rather than maintaining vehicle capacity of the existing SR99 corridor.

The plan would:

1. improve mobility and access to and through Seattle’s Center City and
2. replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a surface street along Seattle’s central waterfront.

SDOT led the Urban Mobility Plan effort in 2008 in close coordination with King County and WSDOT as the three agencies developed alternatives for replacing SR 99 in the Central Waterfront Partnership Process. The Urban Mobility Plan in 2008 was included in the open and transparent public process and evaluation for the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Central Waterfront Process.

As part of the Urban Mobility Plan, The City of Seattle developed a briefing book that provides information about how the transportation system works today, as well as what is known or projected about the future, and how other cities have handled similar challenges.

The report on the Urban Mobility Plan was completed as part of the three agency Central Waterfront Partnership Process and is based on the I-5/Surface/Transit Hybrid scenario that was developed as part of that process.

In January 2009, Mayor Greg Nickels, Governor Gregoire and King County Executive Sims announced their recommendation that a bored tunnel, along with improvements to transit, city surface streets and the city’s waterfront, replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct along the central waterfront.