Video: Eight Viaduct replacement ideas on the table

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SEATTLE – An open waterfront is again looking like a real possibility after an advisory committee was briefed by the Department of Transportation on what a viaduct alternative could include.

It wasn't all that long ago when the Alaskan Way Viaduct issue came to a virtual standstill after Seattle voters rejected the idea of replacing the viaduct with a tunnel, and now that idea isn't entirely off the table.

In a whirlwind tour Thursday, eight different scenarios were presented for what could replace the viaduct that now handles 110,000 vehicles per day.

Four of the scenarios wipe out the viaduct completely – some taking up the slack with new lanes on I-5.

One scenario replaces the current stacked viaduct with a smaller side-by-side version.

The weirdest scenario: building a new viaduct that would contain offices and stores, with a road running through the top story.

And the tunnel ideas are back as well.

Two scenarios include some form of a smaller waterfront tunnel similar to what was proposed before, but another calls for using deep tunnel boring technology under downtown, like that used by Sound Transit building the new light rail line.

But some ideas are out: Retrofitting the current viaduct; a surface expressway along the waterfront; and the Elliott Bay Crossing.

Problem is that nobody knows what any of the ideas that are on the table are going to cost. We should get a better idea on that this fall.