CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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A RESOLUTION requesting that the Washington State Department of Transportation preserve one support pier associated with the Roanoke/R.H. Thomson Expressway; stating the City Council's intent to fund an engineering study of the pier's structural integrity; and stating the City Council's intent that the City accept ownership of the pier.
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WHEREAS, beginning in the 1950s, the Washington State Department of Highways (now the "Washington State Department of Transportation" or "WSDOT") planned the Roanoke Expressway, later renamed as the R.H. Thomson Expressway (the "Expressway"), as a four-lane highway running through Rainier Valley, the Central District, Madison Valley, Montlake, Ravenna, Wedgwood, and Lake City; and
WHEREAS, in 1963, State Route 520 ("SR 520") construction was completed including stub ramps for the Expressway interchange near the Washington Park Arboretum, sparking a civic debate about the negative impacts of highways through urban neighborhoods and a decade-long campaign to stop further state highway construction in The City of Seattle (the "City"); and
WHEREAS, the campaign to save City neighborhoods from the Expressway was notable for its leadership by ordinary citizens, its grass-roots organizing techniques, and a diverse range of community groups that allied in opposition to it; and
WHEREAS, in 1968, the group Citizens Against the R.H. Thomson was formed to organize against the highway plans and included notable Seattle activists Maynard Arsove, Aaron Dixon, Margaret Cary Tunks, Larry Gossett, Alfred Schweppe, and Victor Steinbrueck, and many other activists; and
WHEREAS, on February 8, 1972, the Expressway was canceled following a decisive public vote against it; and
WHEREAS, the Expressway stub ramps were never used for highway purposes and instead became popular, yet unsanctioned, recreational areas; and
WHEREAS, in 2011, Governor Christine Gregoire signed the Record of Decision for t...
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