We aren't sure whether we should be laughing or crying at the latest bit of research that tells us that it will cost our economy $2 billion a year while the Alaskan Way Viaduct is closed and being rebuilt or replaced.

That cost will come because people can't get downtown to eat, shop and even to work - at least in an efficient manner.

The study, paid for by businesses and some non-profits, says the cost to the retail core will be about $768 million a year. Maybe some of it will be spent at Ballard businesses and restaurants.

Added to all of that cost will be what the tab will be for the actual construction, again probably ballooning to over $15 billion if we build the Mayor Greg Nickels Memorial Tunnel.

The 110,000 vehicles per day that use the viaduct will either go elsewhere or add to the carbon emissions by idling on city streets while attempting to take their drivers to work. Oh, we can take a bus, often likely stuck behind a string of stopped cars on their way to the Bus Transit lanes.

But we should stop whining. Despite some credible evidence that the viaduct could be strengthened to extend its life for 40 or more years, the deconstructors are set on demolishing it and replacing it.

There is one idea that remains on the table that needs to be killed right now. That is the wild scheme to flatten the viaduct and build . . . nothing! Just let the traffic merrily roll along on those wide-open, traffic free downtown streets.

Has anyone checked the additives to Seattle's water supply lately?

Get that idea off the table now. There is no way that even widened and streamlined surface streets can accommodate thousands of additonal cars.

We just hope Gov. Gregoire is able to bring some sense to this debate and tell the city it is rebuilt the viaduct or fix the present one. The mayor says he will fight that decision. Well, the last time we read the state constitution it said the state trumps municipalities, giving it the power to build state highways without needing state permission.

- Jack Mayne