Herp Derp - the tunnel in Seattle
The new tunnel to replace Seattle's old Alaskan Way Viaduct is being drilled and the drill ran into something that stopped it in its tracks last December 6th. They now know what it is -- from
The Seattle Times:
What�s blocking Bertha: a long steel pipe
A buried steel pipe is mostly to blame for stopping the giant tunnel-boring machine Bertha, which has been stuck since Dec. 6 along the Seattle waterfront near South Main Street.
The long pipe was an 8-inch diameter, 115-foot-long �well casing,� used to measure groundwater during studies in 2002 on the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project, project officials said.
Matt Preedy, the deputy project administrator for the state Department of Transportation, said he had no estimates about how much time and money it will take to remove the rest of the pipe and to repair damaged cutting tools on the face of the machine.
Nor does the team have a strategy yet for how removal should take place. One possible method is to send tunnel-trained divers to work near the cutter face, under extreme pressures that are exerted by groundwater.
The well site was listed in reference materials provided to bidders as part of the contract specifications, DOT says. �I don�t want people to say WSDOT didn�t know where its own pipe was, because it did,� said DOT spokesman Lars Erickson. However, Chris Dixon, project director for contractor group Seattle Tunnel Partners, said the builders presumed there would be no pipe in the way, because casings are customarily removed after use.
Wonder how much that is going to cost. Glad I don't live in Seattle any more - I was down through there
last November and even though it was far from rush hour, the freeway was clogged.
Posted by DaveH at January 4, 2014 10:50 AM