PHOTOS, UPDATES: Highway 99 tunnel machine’s big lift

2:54 PM: In case you haven’t already heard – the last and biggest to-be-repaired part of the Highway 99 tunneling machine is on its way up. Here’s the latest from WSDOT; you can check out the construction cameras here, but nothing spectacular is visible right now – this will be going on, slowly, for hours to come. We’ll update!

4:15 PM: Via Twitter:

Mike Lindblom, transportation reporter for The Seattle Times (WSB partner), says the cutterhead is expected to be all the way up and out by 7.

4:42 PM: Newest photo via Twitter:

9:07 PM: The cutterhead is out, and horizontal, facing down. Just took this screengrab from the WSDOT camera:

MIDNIGHT: WSDOT says Seattle Tunnel Partners has stopped for the night and will “wait until morning to place the SR 99 tunneling machine’s front end on the repair platform. The piece will remain suspended above the platform until a fresh crew arrives in the morning to complete the lift.” Meantime, West Seattle photographer Paul Gordon was at the site as the cutterhead came into view, and shared this image:

If the repair work goes the way they hope it will, STP says tunneling could resume in August – 20 months after it stopped.

2 Replies to "PHOTOS, UPDATES: Highway 99 tunnel machine's big lift"

  • james t kirk March 30, 2015 (8:51 pm)

    Well, there you go.

  • Rick March 31, 2015 (11:25 am)

    And yet SDOT allows 110,00+ cars a day on an “unsafe” viaduct. Just can’t wait for those new views we need.

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