While the Mayor of Seattle talks about reworking the Seattle waterfront, a quake with these types of damages would certainly handle the demolition effort.
Most of the debate about the issue has focused on the actual viaduct and the sea wall has only gotten an honorable mention in all the solutions being proposed. Failure of the seawall is what will doom the existing structure to collapse. While it has stood the test of time for over 100 years, all things wood eventually rot.
The typical recurrence time for Nisqually sized earthquakes is 30 years. Maybe we have a grace period yet to get things "fixed" before we suffer the fate in this Alaskan Way Viaduct Earthquake Simulation.
