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Seattle and Boston have a lot in common: they are both cities on the water, homes to higher learning institutions and hubs for tech companies. They are connected by Interstate 90 and memories of a Superbowl both cities can’t forget. Now Seattle and Boston are both home to big tunnels that run under the downtown core. Seattle’s tunnel will now face a new challenge: avoiding the problems that plagued Boston’s Big Dig long after it opened. The Big Dig Backstory The Big Dig began as a project to replace the Central Artery, an elevated 6-lane highway that was structurally unsound...

SEATTLE -- Bertha finished boring the path for a new tunnel under Seattle nearly one year ago. Since then, construction crews have finished installing a double-deck highway end-to-end inside the tunnel. That leaves crews to finish installing and testing the $3.2 billion tunnel's advanced operational and safety systems. So when will the tunnel open? How much will tolls cost? And what happens to the Alaskan Way Viaduct? When will the tunnel open and what happens to the viaduct? After the tunnel is finished, crews will close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for several weeks to realign the highway to the tunnel....

A $2 million study on replacing part of Interstate 81 in Syracuse with a tunnel supports what national transportation experts say they have known for years: Tunnels usually are a bad idea.While an I-81 tunnel would be technically feasible, it would be difficult to justify the cost of up to $4.5 billion at a time when few publicly-financed tunnel projects are moving forward, according to four transportation policy experts interviewed by syracuse.com.The few highway tunnel projects approved in recent years have been expensive mega projects, often plagued by delays and cost overruns that have drawn public criticism, the experts said.New York...

Now that stalled tunnel machine Bertha’s front end is disassembled, the damage looks worse than project experts thought — and contractors will miss their goal to resume digging in August. Not only did grit penetrate the rubber bearing seals, but the steel casings around the seals broke apart, sending fragments into the drive gears. Some teeth are cracked in the giant bull gear, which rotates the circular drill face, as well as several pinion gears that are spun by 24 electric motors. The news was revealed Monday morning by Todd Trepanier, administrator for the state’s Highway 99 replacement project, at...

Bertha (Schmidt) Weingarten at age 20 Bertha Schmidt Weingarten 1914 - 2013 My Mother was born Bertha Schmidt, in Brook Park, Minnesota, on December 21, 1914.  She was an early Christmas present who arrived shortly after the start of World War I.   She was the seventh child to be born in a log cabin with two little loft bedrooms.   Her mother, Emma, left her abusive husband when Bertha was 12.   At the time Bertha was one of ten children.   Divorce was very rare.   Her father had taken to drinking.  The situation must have been very bad for her...

Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblock—so mysterious, it is only known for now as "the object." The New York Times reports that the machine—300 feet long and 5 stories tall—has ground to a halt. Built precisely not to be stopped by, well, just about anything, Bertha has apparently met her match. But what exactly is it? "Something unknown, engineers say—and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown—has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet," the NYT writes. It...

State Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson said her agency has been concerned for months about how contractors have been operating Bertha, the Highway 99 tunnel machine, which remains stalled with no clear plan to resume digging. Peterson also sought an explanation as to why Bertha’s operators ran the machine at unusually high temperatures before shutting it down Dec. 6, when the rotary cutter stopped grabbing soil. The tunnel drill had struck an 8-inch-diameter pipe Dec. 3, but contractors kept drilling for three more days — and in fact progressed 58 feet in a day, its best-ever pace.

After drilling four deep shafts and sending a man down to look last week, Seattle Tunnel Partners and the state Department of Transportation don’t fully know yet what’s blocking tunnel machine Bertha, some 60 feet deep next to Pioneer Square. So the DOT announced Tuesday it is “going hyperbaric,” by sending workers to the pressurized cutting face. Teams of five or six workers would take turns inspecting the huge area. Bertha is equipped with two hatches for men and one for equipment, to reach a five-foot wide chamber where excavated muck enters the conveyor system, right behind the 57-foot rotary...

A secret subterranean heart, tinged with mystery and myth, beats beneath the streets in many of the world’s great cities. Tourists seek out the catacombs of Rome, the sewers of Paris and the subway tunnels of New York. Some people believe a den of interstellar aliens lurks beneath Denver International Airport. Now Seattle, at least for now, has joined that exclusive club. Something unknown, engineers say — and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown — has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet, a high-tech, largely automated wonder called Bertha....

In this week's "Wisdom Watch" segment, host Michel Martin speaks with Bertha Lewis, former CEO of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform. Lewis discusses her lessons from the ACORN video scandal. She also shares the hopes of her new organization called The Black Institute and what it'll do that other think tanks will not do.

Bertha Lewis is all done with apologies. Fresh off her ACORN Apology Tour, the group's CEO on Tuesday kicked of her new Denial Tour, charging that nearly every accusation lodged against the embattled community organizing group in recent weeks is not only false but downright racist. And for good measure, she threw in former President George W. Bush's adviser Karl Rove, arch villain and longtime whipping boy of liberals nationwide. "For many years, there've been folks who've disagreed with our ideology or methodology that has gone after us," Mrs. Lewis said in a speech at the National Press Club in...

Three people drowned in two separate incidents in the waters off Atlantic City and Wildwood Saturday, after getting pulled by strong rip currents from the effects of Hurricane Bertha, officials said. Bertha is now a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean approaching Bermuda. But meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly said the rip currents are expected to remain a danger into the early part of this week. This morning, the Coast Guard shifted its search effort for a missing Wildwood swimmer from a rescue mission to a recovery operation. The swimmer was identified as 28-year-old Juan Moore...

MIAMI - Less than a day after becoming the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Bertha surprised forecasters Monday by quickly growing to become a major storm with maximum sustained speeds of 115 mph. Bertha started as a Category 1 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity and was only expected to become a Category 2 before weakening. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was still too early to determine if Bertha will eventually hit land, but it was moving in the general direction towards Bermuda. Forecasters urged residents there to monitor the storm’s progress.

BULLETIN HURRICANE BERTHA ADVISORY NUMBER 17 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL022008 500 AM AST MON JUL 07 2008 ...BERTHA BECOMES THE FIRST HURRICANE OF THE 2008 ATLANTIC SEASON... AT 500 AM AST...0900Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE BERTHA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 19.3 NORTH...LONGITUDE 50.2 WEST OR ABOUT 845 MILES... 1365 KM...EAST OF THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS. BERTHA IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 17 MPH...28 KM/HR. A CONTINUED WEST-NORTHWESTWARD MOTION WITH A GRADUAL DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED IS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AS BERTHA REMAINS OVER THE WATERS OF THE CENTRAL TROPICAL ATLANTIC. IT IS STILL TOO...

This will be official at 11am EDT. Was recently named TD2. Furthest east a storm has formed so early, replaces... Bertha of 1996.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Military investigators probing the deaths last November of about two dozen Iraqi civilians have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said Friday. The Marine Corps initially reported 15 deaths and said they were caused by a roadside bomb and an ensuing firefight with insurgents. A separate investigation is aimed at determining if Marines lied to cover up the events, which included the deaths of women and children. If confirmed as unjustified killings, the episode could be the most serious case of criminal misconduct by U.S. troops during three years of combat...

.Lo and Beyonce can take another bow. The booty-shaking stars have shaped the newest generation of mannequins, with hundreds of well-rounded plastic backsides appearing in shop windows across New York. Bootylicious figures clad in tight low-rise jeans have spilled from the city's street fashion stores into more established labels. "It's absolutely the trend," said Dwight Critchfield, creative director for mannequin firm Goldsmith. "These mannequins look great, and there is a real sex appeal about them." The recent pop culture fixation on large bottoms has been around since at least 1992, when rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot scored a hit with "Baby Got...

Statement as of 7:30 PM EDT on August 6, 2002 ...Amended to upgrade the depression to Tropical Storm Cristobal... For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico... The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories recently upgraded Tropical Storm Cristobal...located about 335 miles east of Jacksonville Florida. Tropical Depression Bertha is located near LaFayette Louisiana and is moving slowly southward. This system is producing locally heavy rainfall....especially east of the low-level center. It is possible that the depression could move back over the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and become a more significant tropical cyclone by Thursday. For more...

TROPICAL STORM BERTHA Public Advisory Forecast/Advisory Discussion Probabilities Update Help -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 000 WTNT32 KNHC 050018 TCPAT2 BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM BERTHA SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 2 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL 630 PM CDT SUN AUG 04 2002 ...TROPICAL STORM BERTHA DEVELOPS OFF THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI GULF COASTS... AT 630 PM CDT...2330Z...A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE MISSISSIPPI AND SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA COASTS FROM PASCAGOULA MISSISSIPPI WEST AND SOUTH TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER... INCLUDING LAKE BORGNE AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AT 630 PM CDT...2330Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM BERTHA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 29.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 89.0...