No matter which option is chosen for replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, it will come with a big price tag for taxpayers to swallow.

A bored tunnel running under downtown from Royal Brougham to Roy Street may cost $3.5 billion. A cut-and-cover tunnel, $2.7 billion. The integrated elevated highway running on top of residential and commercial buildings and under a citywide park may cost $2.2 billion. A lidded trench $1.9 billion. A side-by-side, four-lane elevated highway, $1.6 billion. One of the three surface options on the waterfront could cost $800 to $900 million.

And these are just the base costs.

Because none of the eight scenarios replaces the capacity of the Alaskan Way Viaduct to carry vehicles, the Washington State Department of Transportation will couple improvements to streets, transit and the freeway, to manage traffic that will not use the waterfront.

And these improvements will cost more money in addition to the price of a new waterfront structure.

The estimates, and a list of 56 potential sources of additional funding, were presented Thursday to the Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

The cost of each of the scenarios was not totaled. Base costs were given for the replacement structures, and a range of dollars was separately attached to each set of parallel improvements.

The base costs include moving utilities, demolishing the viaduct, building a replacement highway structure, and restoring the surface street Alaskan Way. They also include replacing the southern half of the seawall, from Washington to Pine streets, and a likely return of the waterfront streetcar.

All costs factor in risk and contingencies. Construction estimates are based on "year of expenditure," which includes inflation.

Parallel improvements, to streets, transit and the freeway, only add from there.

City streets could require an additional $205 million to $378 million, possibly funding part of a two-way Mercer Street, converting lanes on Stewart, Olive and Howell streets to transit, extending Second Avenue South through the Qwest Field parking lot to Fourth Avenue, and adding turn lanes to Denny Way between Sixth and Eighth avenues.

Transit could receive $135 million to $476 million, plus another $9 million to $60 million a year for operating costs, for local transit and trolley improvements, and more expensive new routes for RapidRide.

I-5, already at capacity, could take a few more cars with $195 million to $498 million of improvements. This could include opening the Cherry Street entrance to general traffic, new HOV lanes, electronic signage, a third lane under the Convention Center, and new off-ramps for transit at Industrial Way.

The waterfront streetcar, out of service for years, will be included in the restoration of surface Alaskan Way unless a study shows it is redundant with a new line on First Avenue. New streetcars - on First Avenue, one from the University District, another from Ballard and Fremont - could add $641 million, plus $60 million in annual operating costs.

New policies and management, put in place to lessen traffic, could cost $4 million to $24 million to set up, and $2 million to $36 million a year to run. This may include parking programs, encouragement of bicycling, and transit incentives, up to dynamic on-street parking prices, transit discounts, community telework sites - and tolls.

Cordon tolling - where drivers would pay to drive into downtown - would pay for its capital and operating costs from its own revenue.

The state budgeted $2.39 billion dollars to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, largely from gasoline taxes. It has promised another $400 million. Two years ago the money was earmarked for a six-lane replacement, similar to the existing viaduct. The state constitution may limit what these dollars may pay for now - and not allow funding pieces of a different scenario.

Of this money, $1.1 billion is committed to Moving Forward projects. New footings were poured between Seneca and Yesler streets. Fire safety and lighting will be improved in the Battery Street Tunnel. Electric utilities are being removed from the southern half of the viaduct, anticipating replacement of that half of the structure starting in 2009. The county will buy buses ahead of schedule to increase transit during construction. And some of this money helps build the SR 519 interchange at the stadiums, and a new exit from the Spokane Street Viaduct to Fourth Avenue South.

This leaves $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion to pay for any replacement to the viaduct and its package of parallel improvements.

"It's too early to answer if we will require more funding," said Ron Paananen, deputy director of the Urban Corridors Office at Washington State Department of Transportation, at a media briefing before the advisory committee meeting. "The budget is tight, but this project is a high priority."

"We have not yet identified sources of additional funds," said Bob Powers, deputy director of the Seattle Department of Transportation. "Even the low-end building blocks may not be affordable or effective."

Additional funding could come from federal, state, local and private sources, some one-time grants, others on-going revenue. The 56 sources listed include taxes, loans, levies, tolling, even naming rights to the structure. Some monies must be used on projects as specific as new bus barns, streetcars, the seawall, HOV lanes, or open space.

These eight scenarios are evaluated not just on cost, but on 27 measures of the six guiding principles - safety, efficiency, economic impact, neighborhood, expense and environment.

The advisory committee saw the results from traffic modeling, Nov. 13, showing how cars, buses and freight would flow through each scenario.

Thursday, along with costs, the committee saw how each scenario would decrease downtown street parking. Also, the eight scenarios were shown to have little difference between their impacts on water quality, greenhouse gases and carbon footprint.

The economic impact for each scenario will be presented Dec. 4, showing jobs added, business lost and freight disrupted during construction, and the final economic enhancement of the waterfront and the region.

Then the scenarios will be taken apart, and the most promising building blocks reassembled into two or three "hybrid" scenarios.

These hybrid scenarios - and the total cost for each - will be presented to the advisory committee at meetings Dec. 11 and 18.

A public meeting, where the public is invited to comment on these scenarios, will be 5 to 7:30 p.m., Dec. 15 at Town Hall.

Finally, one scenario will be recommended by the city, county and state departments of transportation, to the mayor, county executive and governor, by the end of the year.

Matthew G. Miller may be reached via bnteditor@robinsonnews.com