Posted on 01/03/2014 3:41:54 PM PST by djf
Edited on 01/03/2014 4:08:01 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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 is 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.
snip
I knew govenment had to be involved somehow...
Someone is an idiot. Likely the contractor and the state DOT.
We, ah, forgot about the pipe. Oops.
That's why they've been trying to figure out what's blocking the boring machine since December 11 (more than three weeks ago).
Another day, another insult to my intelligence.
For once we have a screw up that we can’t pin on obama.
My old tagline proves the point.......
Nothing on the planet is immune from FUBAR.gov
They will probably pull the machine out, fill it full of religious statues and items, put it dim lights, and end up calling it “The Christine Gregoire Memorial Grotto” or some such...
I figure building a tunnel like that in Seattle makes about as much sense as building nuclear reactors right on a fault line in Fukushima...
What is this project that they are using the TBM for?
Seems someone could have walked the surface directly above and found that out in at worst an hour or two. There’s gonna be a grout plug there...
An underground tunnel, 55 feet in diameter, 1.7 miles long, that is set to replace an elevated roadway here called The Alaskan Way Viaduct.
They want to tear that down due to earthquake concerns.
They say the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of waterfront condos they could build have nothing to do with the decision.
I believe they said (yesterday) that they had been drilling a series of holes to a depth of more than 100' in order to try to make contact with the pipe they "knew was there."
Here's the link.
Don’t tell me. It was an environmental study.
What do I win?
Looks like about 5 minutes after the thing quit making progress, the operator would have backed the silly thing up and looked to see what it was hitting. They should have been able to see a bunch of shiny steel. Get some guy with a torch and be operational in a few hours max.
Let the blaming and cost overuns begin!
Thanks. My 6 year old loves TBM videos on youtube.
Exactly. They claim they knew the pipe was there all along yet left everybody stammering since December 6 about the possible cause. Yeah, they knew all along, they were just laughing and playing to see when everybody would figure out this funny trick.
This sounds exactly how Obama and Liberals respond - a big fat lie.
TBM videos
Alaskan Way Viaduct - Tunnel Boring Machine Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk-8Q42NCSQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guWkPRReUaE
Mega TBM for Seattle tested in Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMIorr7DJ7c
Unloading the Bertha Tunnel Boring Machine - Seattle - Timelapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ForvMwcy9Y
Bertha’s cutterhead spins in Seattle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErFC_GF4EqE
Proposed SR 99 Bored Tunnel Underground Simulation March 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfwnkEbc4Q
SR 99 Bored Tunnel Video - October 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwSPmJw8JxY
As a bypass of downtown Seattle this project is fine. For commuters trying to get into downtown it is going to make for a longer commute.
Why?
Because a lot of traffic gets into downtown via the SR 99 viaduct using the Seneca Street and Western Ave exits.
Think traffic is bad now? It’s only going to get worse.
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