More details have been released, including a projected four to five year construction period, on state elected leaders plan to replace the ailing Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep bore tunnel.

About $2.8 billion has been set-aside by the state in gas taxes and federal bridge funds to pay for the project. The price-tag; $4.25 billion.

Most of the funding would have to come from the state, with some help from the county and city. The funding plan also includes a local investment district.

The state legislature will still need to approve the plan, which is supported by Gov. Chris Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims, Mayor Greg Nickels, and Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Seattle Tay Yoshitani.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Gregoire announced the project would begin in 2011 and likely end in 2015 with the tunnel completed.

The viaduct was damaged in the Feb. 28, 2001 Nisqually Earthquake and has been steadily sinking since. It carries roughly 110,000 vehicles a day.

Nickels has favored a tunnel option and the recent decision falls roughly in-line with his plans. However, a 2007 vote resulted in little support for a tunnel option to replace the damaged structure.

As it stands, the tunnel would connect the stadium area with Aurora Avenue with exits near Royal Brougham Way South and north of the existing Battery Street Tunnel. Some traffic would be routed southbound onto Alaska Way and northbound onto Western Avenue.

Plans also call for 50 mile-per-hour speeds on two highway lanes traveling in each direction.

There are currently three lanes in each direction on the viaduct. The new plan does not include an exit, as it currently exits, from Western Avenue to access downtown, Interbay and Ballard.

At a news conference held by the governor and Nickels, the "No Tunnel Alliance" held a rally at the World Trade Center Tuesday, Jan. 13 in opposition to the deep-bored tunnel plan.

The Alliance is chaired by activists Gene Hoglund and John Fox who say a tunnel would result in a "lack of connections" and "have a devastating effect on Seattle?s maritime and industrial businesses that provide many family wage jobs."

They claim the tunnel is too expensive and will do harm to the environment because slow or idling traffic will increase green house gas emissions.