It won't be a retrofit.

The Elliott Bay bridge is off the table too.

The Washington State Department of Transportation also eliminated a six-lane surface highway to replace the viaduct on the waterfront.

At the monthly meeting of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholder Advisory Committee last Thursday, Jim Parsons, who is the lead independent project manager advising the Department of Transportation, first described the options still being considered.

But he saved the hardest news for last: which options did not make the cut.

The retrofit was the first to go.

The cost would be 80 percent to 90 percent of building a new structure, said Dave Dye, deputy director for the Department of Transportation.

"If (a retrofit) was a cost-effective way to extend the life of the structure over 25 years, to improve it, to strengthen it against earthquakes, then we'd do it," said Dye.

Andrew Taylor provided details. He's a structural engineer specializing in seismic design and structural damping systems. As part of the independent project management team advising the Department of Transportation, he reviewed several studies on retrofitting the viaduct.

Since it was built, he said engineers have learned more about how bridges move, citing 1971 San Fernando earthquake, the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the 1994 Northridge quake, and our 2001 Nisqually quake. As a result, seismic design standards are five times more strict than they were in the 1950s.

All the footings on the viaduct must be replaced or strengthened, similar to work completed in May on the four columns between Columbia and Yesler streets, a patch costing $5 million.

Every joint must be replaced.

All the columns must be wrapped in metal.

Salt, in the air from the seawater, has penetrated the structure, corroding internal rebar, weakening concrete.

The road deck for both north- and southbound traffic must be removed and replaced.

Still the viaduct couldn't be brought up to modern standards.

"It's like an old automobile," said Taylor. "You can replace the transmission, the engine, the steering, the brakes, the electrical system.... You end up keeping only the original hood ornament. And you're still left with an old car with a short life span. It may function, but it still has problems."

A retrofit viaduct would still have narrow lanes, no shoulders and short merges.

"It's a bad investment of public funds," said Dye. "Hundreds of millions of dollars won't extend the viaduct past its remaining 25-year life."

Committee members protested.

"I'm flabbergasted you are going to dump the retrofit," said Peter Philips, who represents the Seattle Marine Business Coalition. "Since December, I've asked for economic information, I've asked for engineering information. (Eliminating the retrofit) without any hard data whatsoever, is very, very concerning."

Mary Hurley, who represents Ballard and Fremont, said 18 of 22 people who spoke at an open house in Ballard supported the viaduct.

"In West Seattle, the retrofit comes up constantly," said Vlad Oustimovitch, another neighborhood representative. "To exclude it like this is not going to garner any public support."

"You will need to show your work to explain how you reached your decision," said Tayloe Washburn, from the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, "but I understand the more time you keep options open, the less quality we can spend on the others.

"We are only an advisory committee," he said. "At some point we will have to defer to your expertise."

Officials with the Department of Transportation may schedule a separate meeting to detail the reasons it eliminated the retrofit from further study.

Committee members complained comparatively little when the Elliott Bay bridge was eliminated.

Scale diagrams showed the height of the two pylons-which could support a cable-stayed road deck above the water, ferries and cargo ships-as 900 feet above the water. The structure would dwarf almost all downtown buildings, and violate airspace for planes landing at Boeing Field.

Parsons cited technical challenges. The bridge would have the world's longest single span, the deepest underwater foundations. And with options available on land, Parsons doubted permits would be issued to build in an environmentally sensitive waters.

No one commented when the six-lane surface highway on the waterfront was eliminated.

Parsons spent most of the advisory committee meeting describing the eight options still being considered.

Three surface-only scenarios: two in the footprint of the existing viaduct with differing levels of accompanying improvements across the city; and one which couples Alaskan Way one-way southbound with Western Avenue one-way north.

Two elevated structures: a four-lane, side-by-side, free-standing replacement; and an integrated structure, enclosing offices, businesses and residences, connecting to the downtown through sky bridges, topped with a park.

And three plans for tunnels: a cut-and-cover under Alaskan Way; a lidded trench beside Alaskan Way; and twin, bored tunnels bypassing downtown.

None of these scenarios will match the vehicle carrying capacity of the existing viaduct. Transportation engineers hope traffic and passengers will move to use improvements to transit, downtown streets and the interstate.

Results from computer modeling, calculating the traffic, transit and freight demands in each scenario, will be presented to the advisory committee later this summer. Price tags, this autumn.

"It's counter-intuitive to take off scenarios that maintain capacity," said David Freiboth, who represents the King County Labor Council. "Folks get nervous when you start talking about reducing lanes, losing right-of-way to transit, when they are tired of sitting in traffic.

"The best way to avoid a worst-case scenario it to keep what we have."

The state department of transportation is looking for public comment on the environmental assessment for replacing the southern half of the Alaskan Way Viaduct at two hearings in July.

The first is 4 to 7 p.m., Thursday, July 10, at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave. downtown.

The second is 5 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, July 15, at Madison Middle School, 3429 45th Ave. S.W. in West Seattle.

The environmental assessment describes the environmental effects of replacing the southern end of the viaduct - from Holgate to King streets-how it will be built, and when construction begins. The report can be downloaded from the Washington State Department of Transportation's Web site at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/library-environmental.htm.

Comments, accepted through Aug. 11, may also be e-mailed to southviaductEA@wsdot.wa.gov.

Matthew G. Miller is a freelance writer living in the Admiral District. He may be contacted through wseditor@robinsonnews.com.