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What's Happening Now? (updated January 30, 2012) You’re Invited: Information and Networking Luncheon, February 1, 2012 This lunch event will provide information on the project’s upcoming contracting opportunities and will connect prime consultants, subconsultants, and suppliers, including minority, women’s, small, disadvantaged, and disabled veterans’ businesses with senior project staff and potential prime contractors. February 1, 2012: Seawall Information and Networking Forum
Last spring and summer, biologists and habitat experts on the seawall team counted juvenile salmonids and other fish migrating through the Elliott Bay Seawall project area to better understand fish behavior and movement. Since February 2011, our biologists identified 14 species of fish, including four species of salmonids: chum, Chinook, and coho salmon, and cutthroat trout. Tens of thousands of juvenile salmonids were observed in the project area during peak migration season (March to September). The team’s methods included day and night snorkeling surveys as well as land-based visual surveys. Biologists identified species, counted individual fish, and observed fish behavior our downtown waterfront. Fish survey work using these and other techniques will continue through the winter and into spring 2013. Learn more about our approach to habitat for the Seawall Project. The seawall and you In 2011, the Elliott Bay Seawall Project hosted informational booths at fairs and farmers markets, visited community groups, and hosted public meetings. Much of this outreach has been in coordination with Waterfront Seattle. We’ve talked to well over 1,000 people who asked questions, made comments, read materials, or colored a gribble coloring sheet. Some of the comments and questions we have heard around town included the following:
Thank you to those of you who visited us this year! Keep an eye out for seawall team throughout 2012. Alternatives Defined The seawall team has developed local project alternatives based upon technical work, coordination with Waterfront Seattle, and feedback we've received from our stakeholders and other members of the public. Suggestions that we've heard through over a year of outreach include:
These alternatives set the stage for a range of impacts to be analyzed in environmental documentation required for the project, and allow us to keep options open through final design to ensure as much time as possible for coordination with the Waterfront Seattle design team. Ongoing Stakeholders Group Meetings, Community Briefings The project team continues to meet with the Central Waterfront Stakeholders Group to gather input. See our project calendar for upcoming dates and project library for materials from previous meetings. The project team is also talking to community groups — neighborhoods, business groups, and other associations — about the seawall. If your group or organization would like to arrange a presentation, please email seawall@seattle.gov. Project Overview The Elliott Bay Seawall, which runs from Washington Street to Broad Street along the waterfront, was built between 1916 and 1934. It has deteriorated significantly in the ensuing years and could fail in the event of a moderate to large earthquake, or even a large storm. While the city of Seattle has committed over $3 million to temporary repairs of the seawall since the Nisqually Earthquake, the seawall is a public safety hazard that must be replaced. The need to replace the seawall presents the City of Seattle with an opportunity to enhance the critical marine habitat along the shoreline. Replacement of the seawall, along with Waterfront Seattle's efforts to reshape the public spaces along the central waterfront, will make the waterfront more inviting and accessible to Seattle residents and visitors. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has begun the environmental review required by state and federal law. Project engineers are working to identify seawall construction alternatives, including such options as soil improvement (pumping grout into the ground) and drilled shafts. SDOT has also retained the engineering design firm Tetra Tech to assist with further development of concepts for the new seawall, working to incorporate the desired habitat improvements and better public access to the waterfront. The functions of the various piers and diverse characteristics along the waterfront present opportunities and challenges, such that the final structure may vary between locations. The current plan calls for replacing the seawall in two phases. The first phase is from Washington Street to Pike Street, with construction expected to begin in 2013. The second phase, from Pike Street north to Broad Street, would follow as funding is secured. The goal is to have Phase 1 construction completed before the existing Alaskan Way Viaduct is demolished in 2016. The Elliott Bay Seawall Project team is working in conjunction with the Central Waterfront Stakeholders Group (which includes the Seawall Stakeholder Subgroup), comprised of waterfront business owners and tenants, professionals from the design and environmental fields, representatives from the Port of Seattle and Washington State Ferries, and downtown community members and residents. The Central Waterfront Stakeholders Group is providing advice to both the Elliott Bay Seawall Project and Waterfront Seattle. In a related, but independent, effort the City of Seattle has retained james corner field operations as the lead design firm to develop a Framework Plan and concept design for the central waterfront area (inland from the seawall), to be constructed when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is demolished. More information about Waterfront Seattle is available here.
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