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VGSchadenfreude t1_j8lofip wrote

Probably. We’re surrounded by fault lines and massive volcanoes, so we’ve always known that a disastrous quake or eruption is not an “if.”

It’s a “when.”

And that allows us to plan ahead and continuously improve our infrastructure.

That’s why, for example, despite the years of bickering over how to replace the Viaduct, the city still made sure to at least repair the Elliott Bay Sea Wall. That project was part of the same infrastructure package, but while the Viaduct replacement got bogged down, the Sea Wall forced ahead because that was the more important of the two.

We could live without the Viaduct if we had to.

But the Elliott Bay Sea Wall is the main thing stopping half of downtown Seattle from liquifying and sliding right into Puget Sound during the next quake.

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yungcarwashy OP t1_j8lracn wrote

What’s interesting is when that whole project was going on I never once read a news article about the sea wall, yet I heard dozens of stories about the viaduct… I was in early college and it makes me wonder if people only cared because it related to our automobile-centric infrastructure.

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VGSchadenfreude t1_j8lsfwi wrote

Wouldn’t surprise me, but there’s also the fact that the Viaduct was a lot more obvious and there was more arguing about it.

Nobody questioned the repairs for the sea wall.

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