Tunnel in Seattle Instead of a Ferry? Cool!

A tunnel under Puget Sound? Not as crazy as you'd think

SEATTLE -- An idea being floated this week to Kitsap County commissioners would connect Seattle and Bainbridge Island with a 15-minute drive rather than waiting for a ferry. Instead, you'd go under the water in a tunnel. The retired civil engineer that's pioneering this idea says there's already deeper tunnels, longer tunnels and tunnels in more seismically active areas.

 From article ,(An idea being floated this week to Kitsap County commissioners would connect Seattle and Bainbridge Island with a 15-minute drive rather than waiting for a ferry. Instead, you'd go under the water in a tunnel.

The retired civil engineer that's pioneering this idea says there's already deeper tunnels, longer tunnels and tunnels in more seismically active areas. He says it makes sense in so many ways, including helping the native orcas, saving taxpayer dollars and even helping the economy on both sides of the water.

"A light bulb went off,"  says Bob Ortblad, who is retired from civil engineering but still teaches a class at UW on the history of infrastructure. So when a recent ferry trip to Martha's Vineyard cost him $137 but an Icelandic tunnel going the same distance only cost him less than $10, it got him thinking. 

"Starting looking at the Washington State Ferry system, which is highly subsidized," says Ortblad. "A round-trip ticket for car and driver to Bainbridge really should be closer to $75-$100."
So, he's pitching an idea to build a tunnel. So far the Seattle resident of 40 years has pitched it to the Washington State Transportation Commission and later this week to officials in Kitsap County.  
The tunnel would go from Seattle's Smith Cove, under Magnolia Hill, four miles under Puget Sound and resurface on Bainbridge Island.

It would be much like the Eiksund Tunnel in Norway, completed in 2008, which goes a longer distance but a similar depth of about 800-900 feet. Based on the costs, he says, each two-lane tube would cost about $400 million.) 

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