Someday this will be full of humans using a functional transportation system funded by taxpayer dollars. Or, you know, it wont.
  • WSDOT
  • Someday this giant hole will be full of humans using a functional transportation system funded by taxpayer dollars. Or, you know, it won't.
It's been a while since we checked in with Bertha, Seattle's giant tunnel-boring machine. What's new with you these days, huh, Bertha? Oh, what, you're moving again?


The Seattle Times's Mike Lindblom reports on the underwhelming news:
ā€œWe were just pleased we were able to move three feet, after it sat so long,ā€ said Chris Dixon, executive director of contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners, in a phone interview Monday.

The giant drillā€™s cutter teeth now rest against the south edge of a concrete repair pit, Todd Trepanier, state Highway 99 tunnel administrator, told the Seattle City Council. Dirt will be removed from the 120-foot-deep, ring-shaped pit this month. Bertha will chew through a 20-foot thick wall into open air. Then a giant crane will lift the whole front end to street level, and take it apart. The main bearing and its rubber seals will be replaced, and steel reinforcing plates will be added. Gaps in the rotary cutting head will be enlarged, to increase the flow of excavated dirt toward the conveyor system.

GOSH DARN THIS WHOLE THING HAS ALWAYS SEEMED LIKE SUCH A GOOD IDEA.

Bertha's scheduled to begin actually tunneling again in March of 2015. In the meantime, we've still got lots of ideas for what to do with the tunnel, and only one of 'em involves Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Gouda, and 30 brand-new Skee-Ball machines.