The commitment is not final and the plan would call for $20 million a year participation in the project beginning in 2009.

The Port staff Friday recommended that the Port property tax levy be collected at a fixed rate of 23.4 cents per thousand dollar valuation.

Freezing the levy rate would allow the Port to come up with the money for the viaduct project. The idea would still require deferring $69 million in port work from the 2006-2010 capital improvement plan to the 2011-2015 time frame.

The city of Seattle and the Washington State Department of Transportation have both declared a tunnel the preferred alternative for replacement of the aging viaduct and the adjacent sea wall.

But moving the project underground would cost a billion dollars more than an above ground replacement and neither the city of the state has the extra money.

The Port of Seattle Commission will hold a public hearing next week and at that time may ratify a commitment to help, if critical construction questions can be answered.

The president of the Port Commission, Bob Edwards, says there is no advantage to the Port in replacing the viaduct above ground, but building a tunnel could significantly aid in the moving of cargo along the waterfront: "creating easy access to the waterfront and transportation is critical to the Port and the alternative of replacing it with an at-ground facility would create significant problems."

The State Department of Transportation's Web site says Seattle's industrial and maritime industry generates $32 billion a year -- more even than Boeing. The department says much of that money depends on each travel in and out of the port.

Another indication that the viaduct has problems is a 10 day closure during off-peak daytime hours of a southbound lane to patch a crack in the viaduct.

The crack is not considered a safety hazard, but it is considered another indication that the viaduct needs to be replaced.

The viaduct and the seawall are considered vulnerable to large earthquakes and there has been cracking and some sinking as a result of the 6.8 Nisqually Earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001.

The state says it has the money to replace the viaduct, but not to build a tunnel. The money available includes $2 billion in new gas tax funds which will be collected as a result of voter rejection of I-912, which would have repealed a nine cent gas tax increase, and $220 million in federal money.

The port commission president wants a tunnel and a Port commitment to help fund it.

But the Port got a warning from a Seattle engineer, Craig Keller.

He warned that disruption caused by nine years of tunnel construction could be devastating to the cruise ship industry and to the waterfront itself.

Port Commissioner Paige Miller then expressed her concern saying, at the least, the Port needs a full environmental impact statement on the a cut-and-cover tunnel project.

A former Port Commissioner Clare Nordquist also asked one member of the five-member commission Alec Fiskin to recuse himself permanently from voting on the project. He alleged Fiskin is a consultant to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and appears to have a serious conflict of interest in pushing the project on the commission.

Port officials point out that there is no commitment at this time and no money would be spent until 2009. Even then, they say, money would not be set aside unless the project got a go-ahead and the Port was convinced that the construction plan would be compatible with its waterfront operations.