Viaduct view

Government officials are vigorously debating how best to replace the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct, but business owners along the viaduct's downtown route appear to have reached a consensus on the issue. Calls to more than a dozen of them reveal a nearly unanimous, and passionate, desire to see the freeway buried.

Of the two leading options - creation of a tunnel, or replacement of the elevated highway - the merchants say they prefer the tunnel option for a wide range of reasons, including earthquake safety, noise reduction and aesthetics. Some also expect to profit from increased property values in a neighborhood they suggest would be enlivened by clear access to the Elliott Bay waterfront.

"We think it gives the Seattle waterfront the chance to become what the Embarcadero in San Francisco is," said Bob Donegan, president of Ivar's restaurants. "The chance of that happening here on the waterfront has us drooling, to use a restaurateur's pun."

Though the tunnel option has an estimated cost some $800 million higher than that of a viaduct rebuild, the business owners argue that the extra funding should be sought because of what they term as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a more pedestrian-friendly, walkable downtown waterfront.

Downtown merchants are among several key constituencies considered crucial to the conversion of the viaduct. Many of the business owners have been highly visible at the city's public-comment meetings, and they say the city has been responsive to their input. The city recently narrowed the number of options under consideration, eliminating one tunnel plan that industrial companies objected to, for instance. To be sure, the lobbying effort hasn't been limited to businesses adjacent to the viaduct;...