The Washington State Department of Transportation posted this announcement about the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project to their website Friday:

Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced a significant step forward in the replacement of the seismically unsafe Alaskan Way Viaduct. Both bids submitted yesterday to design and build the SR 99 bored tunnel were at or below the contract price limit. The submittals were from two teams of national and international tunneling firms, who spent months of design work and cost analysis to produce the extensive proposals.

“After 10 years of debate, 90 alternatives, and eight studies today we are returning the waterfront to the people of Seattle and keeping our economy moving,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire. “We can’t afford to wait. Replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct is a critical public safety project. The bored tunnel preserves capacity, is essential to our state’s commerce, and keeps traffic moving through the entire construction process. We owe it to the families and businesses who will spur our economic recovery to complete this project. Today’s bids meet our needs while being on budget and on time to protect the state’s taxpayers.”

Full text is available at the link.

WSDOT also posted a new animation of the bored tunnel to their YouTube page:

We will update this story as more information becomes available.