Once in awhile politicians actually get it right. Take the Alaska Way Viaduct, for example. Everyone said they had reduced the alternatives to replacing the existing structure or removing it and using a surface street scheme. Ha ha, I said they were both bogus since Seattle has to think about the long term future as well as the near term danger that the viaduct will crumble.
I ended that particular rant by demanding Christine build me a tunnel. So Christine, who reads my stuff, met with Ron and Greg and they decided on: A TUNNEL! They agreed with me!
Sure, it’s an inadequate tunnel, with only four lanes, but at least we won’t have to tear down the existing structure first. The tunnel boring machine is done making a hole through Beacon Hill for the light rail, so why not?
A lot’s happened in the last couple of weeks. We got Hopey installed in the White House and Al Franken seems to have won a Senate Seat. Caroline, you know, Kennedy, you know, wanted to be a Senator, you know, but, well, you know, she changed her mind like. You know?
All of which means the world is running pretty much normal.
Retaining Walls:
Coal Creek Parkway is looking more like the updated roadway when it’s finished. They moved it over and made it straighter somewhat. In order to do that they had to build a few large retaining walls.
Our pals in Renton are doing some similar work on Duval Ave. Big long retaining walls.
The folks over at the Cedar Grove Compost Pile have a new kind of material. It’s a big porous bag, like a sausage casing, that they fill with compost. It’s about 18 inches around and can be hundreds of feet long.
What they do is pile these long tubes of new dirt on an unstable hillside or excavation and then tie it all together. The wall has a slope to it so it’s not a straight up deal like a cement retaining wall.
Once it’s all in place and tied down you can cut holes and insert plants. But best of all you can just seed the whole thing and to grow grass. After a season of new grass and shrubs the wall is even more stable due to the root structures. And it’s green.
They claim it holes banks better because it’s real dirt and very solid. Since it’s covered with grass and plants it soaks up water. Now we know where some of our yard waste goes. I’m hoping it catches on because it will help keep our garbage hauling charges down.
One place it can be applied right now is on those banks above the Coal Creek Parkway retaining walls. Since I got the politicians to choose the tunnel maybe they’ll see this and decide to use that compost retaining wall to stabilize those banks. Watch for it in your neighborhood.
Al
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