Skip to main content

What will happen to all the debris from the viaduct?

caption: FILE: Construction continues on the SR-99 tunnel on Thursday, November 2, 2017, in Seattle.
Enlarge Icon
FILE: Construction continues on the SR-99 tunnel on Thursday, November 2, 2017, in Seattle.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

The Viaduct is shutting down forever on January 11. It will then be replaced with a massive underground tunnel.

It started with Bertha, boring underneath downtown Seattle and generating enough dirt to fill CenturyLink Stadium — about 85,000 dump trucks worth of soil if you're doing the math.

In February 2019 the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct begins and is expected to take six months. That will spell the end of Seattle's double-decker elevated freeway which first opened nearly 66 years ago.

So, where will all that debris—the concrete and steel— end up? We answer that question on the next SoundQs episode.

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button above or on your favorite podcast app. SoundQs is a weekly podcast where KUOW reporters tackle questions submitted by our listeners.

Have a question about the Seattle region for us to investigate? Drop it here (if you don't see the form, hit refresh):

_



Why you can trust KUOW