Highway 99 tunnel machine damage ‘more extensive’ than expected, WSDOT tells City Council

(ADDED 12:11 PM: WSDOT slide deck as presented to City Council this morning)

10:35 AM: The damage to the Highway 99 tunneling machine is “more extensive” than expected, but not more extensive than they were expecting to fix. That’s how it was just announced by WSDOT’s Todd Trepanier during the scheduled periodic Highway 99/tunnel project briefing for the City Council. For as long as the briefing continues, we’ve embedded it above (click the “play” button to access the live Seattle Channel stream). Trepanier specifically mentions machine sealing that’s been “stripped away.” Trepanier says Seattle Tunnel Partners hasn’t said what caused it, and doesn’t have to, under terms of the design/build contract, but councilmembers are pressing the point.

10:42 AM: First among them is Councilmember Mike O’Brien, who wants to know the schedule and says he’s nervous every day the Alaskan Way Viaduct stays open. Trepanier says that the contractor has told them they’ll have a revised schedule next month. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen asks if there’s some deadline for this to get going again; Trepanier says they want the contractor to “take the time that (they) need” but adds on followup that the contract does include deadlines with monetary consequences. Those deadline dates are not close, though, Trepanier says. He tries to move along but O’Brien asks again, do they have any idea what went wrong? Trepanier replies no, that’s between the contractor and the machine’s manufacturer. He continues showing images of the damage (no slide deck provided yet). “If everything is going wrong like this right now, how do we know (it’s OK) before it gets back in the ground (and resumes tunneling)?” asks Councilmember Sally Bagshaw.

Next, it’s on to a report about ground settlement in the area. One report has reached the conclusion that the drawdown of an aquifer by the “dewatering” for the access pit caused November’s settlement. But that has stabilized, Trepanier goes on to say. “That type of settlement is no longer going to continue,” they believe. In all, he adds, three reports related to the settlement are out – and they don’t all agree with each other regarding other points. One specific area, he adds, is believed to be an area “where there’s always been a problem” predating the dewatering.

11:03 AM: Trepanier is showing charts with details of which engineering firm says what. This part of the briefing has lasted much longer than the one about the specific damage has been found in the tunnel machine. After a few minutes of details, he recaps that they disagree with the city over what’s to blame for the Pioneer Square water main that needs to be replaced – “it’s always been a problem” in their view, before the tunnel-project dewatering. He also says that they haven’t found noteworthy structural damage in the area. He also says the aquifer related to the dewatering should eventually have a “rebound effect … when the pump shutoff takes place.”

11:21 AM: WSDOT moves on to an update on what other work is being done while the tunnel machine is being fixed. On this side, the South Operations Building is taking shape, he notes. And WSDOT is writing its response to the city’s evaluation of the Viaduct, Trepanier adds.

11:29 AM: Briefing is over. We’re taking down the live-video window; we’re expecting the slide deck from WSDOT in a bit and will add that when it’s available.

11:43 AM: WSDOT has published its own summary, here.

12:11 PM: And now we’ve received the slide deck, and added it atop this story.

20 Replies to "Highway 99 tunnel machine damage 'more extensive' than expected, WSDOT tells City Council"

  • Duff Radke- Bogen May 18, 2015 (11:56 am)

    My fall back proposal. To keep it out there, just in case.
    A cut and cover trench for the roadyway within the foot print of the old viaduct. Development rights for the surface of the lid leased ala the University Tract. Lease income to pay off costs and then roll over into a highway maintance fund.
    DRB

  • ChefJoe May 18, 2015 (12:05 pm)

    So, Sawant is out at T5 protesting while the rest of the city council is actually discussing local city business. Got it.

  • JanS May 18, 2015 (12:08 pm)

    could this comedy of errors get any better? SMH !

    Gee, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think that the STP contractors have some sort of dirt on the powers that be in this city, because we sure took it in the shorts for this contract. They don’t have to divulge anything to us? Seriously? Sounds like we gave away the store on this contract, and now they’ve come to collect. “They don’t have to tell us that”…”That’s between the contractor and the manufacturer” No, there should be answers to us…we’re paying for the overage it seems…and everything else. At this rate the viaduct could have been retrofitted, rebuilt, and we’d be getting on with life. What a disaster !

  • LS May 18, 2015 (12:28 pm)

    Councilman O’Brien needs keep the pressure on asking the tough questions and not accepting the evasive answers. I agree with JanS’s comments.

  • heather May 18, 2015 (12:36 pm)

    “The damage to the Highway 99 tunneling machine is ā€œmore extensiveā€ than expected, but not more extensive than they were expecting to fix.”

    I appreciate the update.

  • joel May 18, 2015 (2:06 pm)

    Seattle and STP might as well start the lawsuits – it’s going to end up there so might as well move forward to that day. STP won’t pay a penny for the delays and cost overruns – this isn’t their first tunnel and they know how to word the fine print. The Seattle council/mayor and DOT – they are in way over their heads….why even put out a calendar with dates of fixing, starting, fixing again, etc?…the dates are going to be wrong.

  • Curtis May 18, 2015 (2:24 pm)

    It’s perfectly fine that the STP folks don’t have to tell the WSDOT folks what went wrong with Bertha. HOWEVER, it does seem to me that the STP folks should be called to Council Chambers so that THEY can tell the Council what went wrong.

    Of course, this could have been (may still be) a lot worse but so far it’s like going into get new tires and being shown that the tires had less tread than you thought. You were still getting a new set of tires no matter what – although you might want to check your suspension and alignment to see if that’s why your tires aren’t lasting. So if the thingamajig is more torn up that you expected, but you’re installing a brand new thingamajig, then everything is going to ok………unless that thingamajig simply won’t do the job an what you really need is a whatchyamacallit.

  • Les May 18, 2015 (3:23 pm)

    This project has been a major engineering disaster it’s time for plan B abort Bertha and proceed with the cut and cover option.

  • cynical girl May 18, 2015 (3:28 pm)

    Bertha was featured this wknd on the History channel’s engineering disasters program. They didn’t sound too optimistic about Bertha either

  • cake May 18, 2015 (6:05 pm)

    Let’s turn the shell oil drilling rig on its side and use it to drill the tunnel.

  • David May 18, 2015 (8:37 pm)

    I love the “sky is falling” freak outs over this. LOL. First the Viaduct was sinking, then Pioneer was sinking, etc. RUN! It’s JUST a machine. It broke. It sucks. It’s being fixed. Even the “new damage” they discovered” is all on parts being replaced or repaired ANYWAY (so why it should increase the time a week even is debatable). But machines break. Car transmissions, computer hard drives, home water heaters, etc. SUCKS when it’s big and only needs to run for 6 months. But there’s TONS of work being done, and it doesn’t really matter if it’s late… the Viaduct is still running so it doesn’t bother anyone anyway. It’ll get done, then 2 years from now we’re forget this “debate” ever happened and move on to some other “catastrophe”. :)

    And no, we’re NOT stopping the project 70% of the way through. That’s even MORE insane than Seattle cancelling the monorail expansion after approving it 6 times and buying all the land, designing it and prepping to build…then cancelling it (by the way, it would be running by now, instead of waiting for MAYBE having light rail to West Seattle in MAYBE 20 to 25 years).

  • Mike May 18, 2015 (8:56 pm)

    Extra time to build a safer solution, or keep using a broken Viaduct 20 years past it’s lifespan?

  • Robert May 18, 2015 (9:53 pm)

    I feel better on a 20year past due viaduct than a built by the lowest bidder rat hole tunnel that won’t carry even the current viaduct traffic load.

  • WSince86 May 18, 2015 (10:55 pm)

    Cake-Laughing!!

  • wetone May 19, 2015 (9:37 am)

    STP is laughing all the way to the bank. All they had to do was get Bertha to 1000′ mark for the money. Probably why rescue pit was dug at it’s location. Then STP finished her off getting there. Todd Trepanier from WSDOT and rest of crew involved in this project should be fired. Not laid off, reassigned or given early retirement for their incompetence and wasteful spending of tax dollars. Time to stop this project now and retro-fit what we have or look into some other options. We would be money ahead and drivers would at least have a view while sitting in traffic ;)

  • joel May 19, 2015 (1:59 pm)

    does the city/state have an owner’s rep. they’ve hired? most times when your staff is in over their heads you hire an expert to represent you with the contractors. I’ve only seen press conferences where the council is attempting to understand what’s going on….it’s a bit late to bring an expert in on the city/states team but would have been money well spent.

  • Born on Alki 59 May 19, 2015 (3:28 pm)

    Joel, the experts were already consulted long before drilling started. They all said bad idea. Queen Christine poo-pooed them all and here we are. At least we’ll have a nice potential spot for an underground tent city.

  • Felix May 20, 2015 (6:41 am)

    I wonder what you guys will complain about when the tunnel is finished…my guess is, you will conveniently forgotten your earlier stance and you’ll be complaining about Shell not cleaning up the massive catastrophic oil spill in the Arctic…

  • wetone May 20, 2015 (9:36 am)

    Felix, anything or almost anything can be done. The issues are how much money and time does one spend in doing so for gain ? If ever finished my complaining and many others will be how are we going to afford living here as taxes, utilities and tolls rise to pay for this project along with related infrastructure issues created from this project.

  • Robert May 21, 2015 (9:11 am)

    well let’s see, where the next rescue hole will be, that should put it about the pike place market. about one thousand feet.that should put the delivery time about 2025? if it can get that far without another bearing melt-down. maybe by then tacoma or vancouver will have their port system updated to handle the extra traffic from the seattle port traffic that can’t use the hiway 99 roadway..

Sorry, comment time is over.