The SeattlePI.com reports that even if the state decided to abandon the deep-bore tunnel, the cost to get rid of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be more than $1 billion.

If the state canceled its planned deep-bore tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, that would leave about $1.1 billion -- less than half of the original budget -- to start over, a state transportation official says.

That's because hundreds of millions have already been spent on the replacement project, and hundreds of millions more are committed or would be lost if the tunnel project were canceled.

"That's really the upper limit of what we might have left. But we recognize this is a bunch of what-ifs. This is really not on our radar screen right now," said Ron Paananen, the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project administrator. "There really is little or no interest in revisiting this decision in Olympia that I'm aware of."

OK---but none of this information is really new. In fact, the state made a deliberate effort to replace the south end of the viaduct in a way that could accommodate any viaduct alternative, including not just the tunnel but the surface/transit option. The billion dollars the PI is talking about have to be spent no matter which option ultimately prevails. So the PI article's alarmist slant---"If we don't build the tunnel, we'll have wasted billions!"---is misleading.

A better angle would be: "If we don't build the tunnel, we'll have more than a billion dollars left over for the surface/transit solution." But that isn't the sort of headline that constitutes front-page news.

(For a truly wonky look at ongoing construction of the viaduct replacement, check out this story in the Engineering News-Record, a national engineering news web site.)