‘Supertunnel – Journey from Light to Light’: Welcoming a new WSB sponsor

Love it or hate it, the Highway 99 tunnel is inarguably an “engineering feat,” as photographer/author Catherine Bassetti describes it. She was official photographer for the project and has published a behind-the-scenes book. She is sponsoring WSB to ensure interested readers know about it:

Discover everything about the historic deep-bore tunnel drive that changed the face of Seattle’s waterfront forever. Catherine Bassetti, the official photographer for the SR99 Tunnel project, introduces Supertunnel – Journey from Light to Light.” This 190-page, hardcover book chronicles the engineering feat that broke records and beat the odds in the global tunneling industry. In a grand tour behind the scenes, the book offers a refreshing perspective on Seattle’s transportation project of the decade with commentary from key participants, civic leaders, and entertaining ‘On the Job Spotlights’ from laborers.

“After five years working above and below ground, photographing the six worksites, all events, and milestones of this giant undertaking, I realized that the public audience was not privy to more than reports of the setbacks and politics surrounding the project. By producing this book, my hope is that readers can sense the magnitude of engineering and dedicated labor that built Seattle’s new tunnel. There was no shortage of opportunity to make the innate come alive in the lens. I met skilled men and women whose energy was unstoppable. This book came to life as they shared their own experiences on the job. This was one of the most surprising, demanding, fulfilling, and thought-provoking assignments of my career.”

In an article for the Seattle Times Traffic Lab, Mike Lindblom, veteran transportation reporter wrote: “The Highway 99 tunnel has generated another milestone: a photo retrospective that’s a hefty three pounds and 190 pages. ‘Supertunnel – Journey from Light to Light,’ by Catherine Bassetti, celebrates the epic feat of building the 53 1/3-foot-diameter tube, two miles from Sodo to South Lake Union.“Photographing the tunnel was grand, even in the smallest detail”, she writes. The pictures will bring back memories for tunneling fans, or anyone explaining the giant tube to visitors. Bassetti underwent safety training and became friends with tunnel forepersons and laborers, gaining access deep inside. Many of them wrote short reflections for pages between the photos. The book provides some fresh images, such as close-ups of workers assembling the concrete rings, beyond areas available to local news media.

Miner/segment erector operator Cody Heck maneuvers the world’s largest tunnel wall segments into place

In a stunning image, Bassetti leaned off a catwalk over a 120-foot-deep vault, where Bertha’s damaged front end was being repaired and strengthened, to shoot straight down at the cutting disc and new steel teeth, tinged gold by some rare winter sunshine.

The newly repaired ‘Bertha’ cutterhead is lowered into the 120-foot rescue shaft

Another memorable chapter features construction divers working in four times atmospheric pressure. They replaced the 75-pound steel teeth, then rested for hours in the decompression chamber. “Even though you couldn’t see too far below, you knew it was 60 feet down. When something like a piece of rock fell, you could definitely hear it hit the water. It didn’t feel so high because it was so dark in there,” writes worker Cody Heck.

Control-room operators are pictured, taking pride in their post-repair success. Soil settlement was nearly too minute to measure beneath downtown buildings, the result of accurate steering and soil measurement.

But this book, focused on the dig, isn’t a place to learn about the litigation, nor Seattle’s political arguments about whether to build highway infrastructure during climate change, or the eight years of debate and advisory votes pitting a new viaduct vs. a tunnel vs. a surface road.

“As the machine came to a halt, the elated shouts and whistles of the crew from within the machine marked the end of Bertha’s arduous and triumphant journey,” she writes.

“Hats off”! The crew celebrates the end of a successful drive at the North Portal exit site

“Supertunnel” is a thorough account of all that went into the two-mile underground highway, including thirty separate topics, and hundreds of original photos and renderings. Rather than a fast read, the book is the type that will linger on the living room table for readers to continue viewing over time.

A Seattle native, Catherine Bassetti grew up in the eastern foothills, overlooking the city and Puget Sound. Her career began in Madrid, Spain, focusing on commercial work and photojournalism for fifteen years. Returning to the Northwest, she opened her business for corporate, public and private clientele. Documenting the tunnel was, in a small way, her own contribution to the city where her family has roots in its early urban growth and development. Catherine’s connection to West Seattle stems from her maternal grandparents, Joe and Marjorie Wilson, who built one of the first homes on Fauntleroy Ave., and her aunt, Jane MacGowan, who was a lifelong resident nearby.

For detailed information on the book and Catherine’s work, visit www.thesupertunnel.com

10 Replies to "'Supertunnel - Journey from Light to Light': Welcoming a new WSB sponsor"

  • Rico May 10, 2023 (12:43 pm)

    Though I generally take the surface streets to avoid the hefty toll – tax, this book looks interesting!    I have always wondered why Bertha was destroyed after the tunnel was finished.  Seems like we could’ve use Bertha to build a few more tunnels . . .

    • Wendell May 10, 2023 (7:14 pm)

      Do you would want more tunnels that you wouldn’t use? Kinda refutes your tax excuse. 

  • wscommuter May 10, 2023 (2:06 pm)

    You have to understand that unless there was another 58′ diameter tunnel to build somewhere else, it had no further function (the 53.5′ diameter mentioned in the article is the interior diameter with the tunnel liner installed).  Pretty much, all bored tunnels have specific diameters and very few TBM’s can be re-purposed elsewhere.  That, and at the exit point, trying to disassemble Bertha and transport it to the waterfront to be shipped somewhere would have been an engineering feat in and of itself.  

    • Chuck Jacobs May 11, 2023 (11:08 am)

      Bertha was not only designed for a specific bore diameter, but also depth, distance,  and soil type. Since it was constructed for a single use, it most likely completed the job with many components at least halfway through their service life. It would have added much to the initial cost to design with repair or replacement in mind. Then add the cost of transport, storage, and maintenance which is not insignificant. 

  • bolo May 10, 2023 (3:48 pm)

    Just now I have wonderfully come to realize that “time changes everything.” Bertha was mostly unrelentlessly trash-talked to death during the period she was active.

  • dmb May 10, 2023 (9:36 pm)

    A few billion dollars buys a lot of competence but the competence comes in the form of thousands of people who know what they are doing and who give a serious damn about the end result.  This tunnel is no easy feat and we should celebrate its completion.

  • EDN May 10, 2023 (10:46 pm)

    I have this book & highly recommend it. All the major components and processes are explained, often by the company that did the work — technical enough to be informative, yet still approachable by a lay person.The dozen interviews with the workers are my favorites, from a woman knee-deep in mud, washing out the tires of the trucks, to one of the guys who drove Bertha under the city! Uniformly they are enthusiastic,& so proud to have been on this job. The photos are gorgeous. This book opened my eyes to what a massive and complex job this was. Seattle should be proud.

  • Franny Agather May 11, 2023 (7:32 am)

    I continue to pour over Catherine Bassetti’s book, “Building Seattle’s State Route 99 SUPERTUNNEL” as the photographs and story unfold to tell a dramatic story of the building of the world’s largest tunnel…and a huge slice of Seattle history,.   Bassetti brings a thrilling vibrancy to the photos shot high in a precarious “basket”…dangling over  “Bertha ” and the tunnel itself.   I wonder if some of this thrilling photography shows, at its roots, a previous career of this woman, long, long ago, on the high ropes of Ringling Bros. Circus?  Or another previous career as an international  high fashion photographer?  Bassetti’s personal biography has certainly informed this book.  SUPERTUNNEL continues to captivate me…a fascinating  history of  the recent Seattle waterfront transformation… that is worthy of displaying on my coffee table…for all to see. 

  • Felix Grounds May 11, 2023 (8:45 pm)

    It was my understanding, based on comments in the WSB comment threads, that the tunnel would never be finished.

  • Glen cleary May 12, 2023 (10:10 am)

    It extremely rare in a major civil project like this for a photographer to have unrestricted access to all work sites. This book really captures the true story of the work that goes into this kind of project. This book will take you on a journey through the story behind a massive project with complexities hidden behind the finished veneer. This is a very rare opportunity to have an experience like this.  This is a story of Seattle, this is a story of labor, and this is a story of worldwide engineering all coming together to do something never done before in the world.  This book should be an every school in the country.

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