Comments on: Highway 99 tunnel trouble: ‘See’ Bertha and the repair timeline

By: dawsonct

dawsonct — Fri, 16 May 2014 03:11:56 +0000

Not going to read the whole thread so I don’t know if it’s been answered, but my father is a civil engineer who worked for Metro from the mid 80’s into the 00’s. W. Seattle’s sewage flows to Renton, and then back out (in a highly treated state, though Dad said he wouldn’t drink it) to Elliott Bay/Puget Sound.
Without the people’s governments, crap just piles up.
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BTW, when METRO built the downtown bus tunnel, it came in on time and under budget.
The fiasco with the rails was because the engineers KNEW they would have to rebuild the tunnel for the specific type of rail transit that would eventually be used, but the city council at that time insisted on them being placed, so Metro built them on the “cheap” to satisfy their bosses.
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So, there you go, sometimes the People’s government does great things and succeeds wildly, sometimes less so. At least we are spending money to make OUR city and region a better place for the overwhelming majority of it’s citizens. Seems to have much more far-reaching and positive effects then do tax breaks for monopolistic, competition-crushing corporations and the oligarchs who run them.

By: wscommuter

wscommuter — Thu, 15 May 2014 18:35:44 +0000

wetone … you remind me of Fox News or Rush Limbaugh ranting about Benghazi. Don’t really offer any facts; just claim that you have facts without any specifics … and then, again without any specifics, attack the truth by impugning the messenger. Your last post reads like a disjointed rant – no real analysis or specific detail to make whatever your point is supposed to be.

I have nothing involved in this project – again, very Rush Limbaugh of you to impugn my post without any truth behind it. I just read and learn and understand what our choices were and agree with the thoughtful decision that was made to build the DBT.

You absolutely have a right to your opinions. You think commute times will get worse? Good for you. You are entitled to have that opinion. Time will tell whether you’re right, or all wet.

And it is a complete red herring to complain about commute times through the Aurora-WS corridor right now. Construction is obviously impacting that area, especially the southbound route in the afternoons. That is an inevitable consequence of construction. But it is temporary. I certainly hope you have the courage to come back to this blog in a couple of years, when traffic through the tunnel is moving at 50-60 mph smoothly and remind us of your opinions now.

I won’t hold my breath for that, however.

By: wetone

wetone — Thu, 15 May 2014 16:44:58 +0000

wscommuter keep telling your followers your fairy tales. All I want is people to look at and research the real facts on this project and many others that have and are going on in this city and go from there. If you truly believe in what your saying great, but I for one believe and have seen little to what you have said in the past to be accurate, except as you said above The Tunnel Will Get Built and that comment says it all. Sounds like you got a lot standing on this deal ? About my fact’s just ask anybody that drives 99 Lake Union to south Seattle or W/S say a 8 mile drive that averages 35-60 mins in rush hour and see what they have to say, but I really don’t think you care. I see the surface streets going through downtown getting a lot busier very soon and commute times in and out of W/S once your tunnel is done going up by a third if not more and with more train and marine traffic just keep adding;)

By: Bullzag

Bullzag — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:36:00 +0000

David Sucher- WSDOT should have no responsibility for the problems with the tunneling machine itself, aka Big Bertha. That dispute should be between the contractors (STP) and the machine’s manufacturer (Hitachi). What will ultimately decide who pays for this specific problem is up to the courts, but it will be based off of how the seals were blown. Were they flawed by design? If that is the case then Hitachi should be responsible, but if the machine was simply run too hard or too quickly which ended up causing the seals to fail then it would be STP who has to pony up for the delay costs.

What will be really interesting is to see if this machine can make it through the most difficult part of the dig (underneath downtown Seattle) without a hitch. If it fails there then we’re looking at some serious cost overruns.

By: 935

935 — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:47:39 +0000

AHHHHHHH…I love fairytales

By: bolo

bolo — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:46:05 +0000

Bertha drills a large diameter hole. As it moves forward they line the hole immediately behind it with several feet of concrete and reinforcements to keep it from caving in. So Bertha can’t back up because behind it now is too narrow for it to pass thru.

By: joel

joel — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:34:55 +0000

Marty….Miss Bertha does not have reverse. it goes forward or it don’t go and it ain’t going.

By: joel

joel — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:33:50 +0000

Silly Goose….the news about not running again until March 2015 was announced before. I am pretty certain this was announced just before the deadline for the April election of Prop 1….but get ready for round 2 of Prop One….Round 2 will be just after the Park Department Tax increase but before the Pre K tax levy. By that time there could be 3 more tax increase votes so instead of your typical 3 layer sandwich of tax increases it could turn into a foot long sub of tax increases. And you can bet this footlong will cost more than $5 and no free refills of soda.

By: Marty McFly

Marty McFly — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:28:56 +0000

@WSB: Could they not just pull out Bertha backwards?

By: WSB

WSB — Thu, 15 May 2014 05:20:14 +0000

In reply to Silly Goose.

The expectation of resumption in March was announced last month, here and a variety of other places. What *is* new today is the renderings, one of which I showed here. (Following is the April story about the “no digging until next March” timetable.)
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https://westseattleblog.com/2014/04/highway-99-tunnel-machine-wont-dig-again-before-march-2015/
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The renderings we feature here were actually made public around 4 yesterday afternoon but apparently we weren’t the only ones too busy to notice them until later!

By: David Sucher

David Sucher — Thu, 15 May 2014 03:54:20 +0000

Who pays for access pit? If WSDOT refuses to pay (which it has), what happens? Does that mean that project is dead?

No one can be sure who is responsible unless we dig $125 million access pit to see where/how Bertha failed.

Interesting, eh?

By: Silly Goose

Silly Goose — Thu, 15 May 2014 03:35:25 +0000

@Joel they announced the bad news today about Bertha that she will not be in operation again until March of next year, which is after the election!!! So typical for Seattle no one communicates and ego’s get in the way of prgress!

By: miws

miws — Thu, 15 May 2014 01:13:43 +0000

Too bad we can’t just call a AAA…

Betty, good suggestion. I think AAA is usually only 1-1/2 to 2 hours late! ;-)

Mike

By: Betty at Alki

Betty at Alki — Thu, 15 May 2014 00:38:10 +0000

WSB: Thank you for that analogy on “limping” to the garage with a sick car regarding how Bertha can move but overheats fast.
Too bad we can’t just call a AAA for DOT & STP! :-)

By: Wilbur Frogstomp

Wilbur Frogstomp — Thu, 15 May 2014 00:12:30 +0000

I am opposed to the tunnel and do not have time at the moment to go into why, but I do appreciate your comments wscommuter.