[5] On January 6, 2016, Bertha broke through the concrete access vault and began digging through normal soil. It was an easy, light-traffic day Monday on Highway 99", "From disassembly pit, crews haul away last bits of Bertha", "Bertha is now tunneling under buildings in downtown Seattle", "Distance update: Bertha has traveled a total of 2,886 feet. Transportation officials explain the decision to replace the viaduct with a tunnel: This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Inslee halts Bertha work after sinkhole forms near project", "She's ba-ack! [1] It was made by Hitachi Zosen Sakai Works in Osaka, Japan, and the machine's assembly was completed in Seattle in June 2013. Front of a model of Bertha at Milepost 31, the tunnel project information center Walls of tunnel in place in January 2017, about two years before the 2019 opening date. Bertha has broken through. After nearly four years underground, Seattle’s beleaguered boring behemoth clawed its way into daylight yesterday, leaving a 1.7-mile tunnel behind it. By January 4, Bertha had traveled 1,098 feet (335 m) of its planned 9,270-foot-long (2,830 m) route from SoDo to South Lake Union. [54] Before excavation of the tunnel could resume, WSDOT requested that the contractors, Seattle Tunnel Partners, complete and deliver an analysis of what caused the January 12 sinkhole and what modifications to tunneling operations could be made to prevent further ground-level problems. The breakdown of the giant drill named Bertha meant the tunnel did not open until last February, and contractors and the state are now fighting in court over the cost of repairs and delays. "Funding for the $3.2 billion viaduct replacement program comes from state, federal and local sources as well as the Port of Seattle and tolls on drivers using the tunnel. When will the tunnel open and what happens to the viaduct? The tunnel opened to State Route 99 traffic on Feb. 4, following a weekend grand opening celebration, where the public had an opportunity to walk through the tunnel and learn more about the plans for Waterfront Seattle, a public park that will be developed along the site of the viaduct. Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future", "WSDOT Statement on SR 99 Tunneling Machine", "Tunnel crews lowering groundwater to get a closer look at what's blocking Bertha", "Contractor ordered to pay Washington state $57M over tunnel-boring machine Bertha;s big stall", "Prosaic Pipe Stymied Seattle's Big Bertha", "SR 99 tunneling machine to resume digging in March 2015", "Actually, digging continued Tuesday at Bertha's repair pit", "New delay in Bertha rescue as engineers study sinking soil", "Bertha's mammoth cutter head emerges from tunnel vault", "New estimate of tunnel opening: August 2017", "Seattle Tunnel Partners submits new schedule for completing SR 99 Tunnel Project", "New Bertha start date to resume digging is Nov. 23", "Bertha repair will take longer – there are lots of broken parts", "Aug. 24 project update: Seattle Tunnel Partners planning to lower Bertha into the access pit today", "Crews start moving Bertha's rebuilt cutter drive back into pit", "Bertha's builders: Tunnel borer started out 'perfect, "Jan. 7 project update: Bertha exits the access pit", "Bertha making progress, tunnels 73 feet since repairs", "Bertha stops digging again, but this time it's because of a barge", "Sinkhole adds to Bertha's problems, but drilling to resume", "While Bertha halts over barge issues, sinkhole opens near access pit", "Inslee orders tunnel dig halted as soil sinks above Bertha", "Jan. 14 project update: Tunneling on hold pending safety review", "Gov. After Bertha was disassembled, the state estimated the tunnel would open in early 2019. On December 6, 2013, work was halted approximately 1,083 feet (330 m) into the planned 9,270-foot-long (2,830 m) route because of an unexpected impediment. ", "March 9 project update: New 360-degree video takes you inside the tunnel as Bertha enters Zone 10", "Seattle tunnel tops U.S. green group's 'boondoggle' list", "Seattle's unbelievable transportation megaproject fustercluck", "Bertha: Off the hook in the Legislature but not out of mind", The World's Largest EPB Shield Tunneling Machine, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bertha_(tunnel_boring_machine)&oldid=991208724, Articles containing potentially dated statements from December 2016, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 28 November 2020, at 21:37. The machine's parts were not reusable and were scrapped. Challenges in the construction process have made that a problem. [49][50] Digging was halted once again on January 12, 2016, after a barge carrying excavated dirt tipped over in Elliott Bay, spilling its load and damaging a dock at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 46. The completed tunnel opened to traffic on Feb. 4, 2019 following a weekend grand opening celebration where the public had an opportunity to walk through the tunnel and learn more about the city’s plans for the waterfront—a section of the city that had long been cut off from the rest of the city by the unwieldy and noisy viaduct. The machine completed its tunneling on April 4, 2017 and was fully dismantled and removed from the tunnel on Aug. 23, 2017. [67], The two-year stoppage of Bertha has been criticized as an example of a political boondoggle by opponents. The pipes' locations were known to WSDOT and the agency thought they had been removed, while STP admitted in a 2019 lawsuit that they had knowledge of the pipe prior to excavation. How much will tolls cost? Sometime the following morning, on Wednesday, December 4, the operators began seeing 3- to 4-foot pieces of pipe and a bunch of smaller pieces showing up … There is more than a year’s worth of work left in its 9,270-foot-long wake. [52][53], On January 14, 2016, Governor Jay Inslee ordered drilling on the tunnel to stop, invoking a contract clause in the tunnel agreement that allowed the state to suspend work based on unsafe conditions for project personnel or the general public. Of that total cost, the 2012 Legislature stated $200 million must come from toll funding," WSDOT says.The Washington State Transportation Commission is responsible for setting toll rates: "The WSTC will consider multiple factors in order to determine the best rate to minimize traffic diversion onto other roads but still generate necessary revenue for the tunnel. [6] Tunnel boring was completed on April 4, 2017, the final disassembled pieces of the boring machine were removed in August 2017, and the finished tunnel opened to traffic on February 4, 2019. [20][21], Bertha had a special pre-programmed melody that played for workers inside the machine and those monitoring the tunnel-borer. [40][41], On May 18, 2015, WSDOT reported to the Seattle City Council that the damage to the bearing and seals was worse than had been previously reported. An abbreviated history of Bertha: July 2013: Began tunneling; April 2017: Tunneling breakthrough; August 2017: Final piece of dismantled machine removed . WSDOT says the cause of the damage is under dispute and in litigation. [63] As of December 15, 2016,[update] the tunnel length reached 70% completion. The bill was never heard in the state senate and failed to pass the Senate Transportation Committee. Tunnel boring began on July 30, 2013, with the machine originally scheduled to complete the tunnel in December 2015. [76][77], In January 2015, two Republican state senators introduced a bill in the Washington State Legislature to kill the project, citing Bertha and its delay in particular. Further inspection after the cutting head was removed and disassembled showed damage to the cutter head drive gears, so a new estimate of the repair time and cost was prepared. The use of Bertha, considered state of the art, was promoted by WSDOT as a way to monitor the project. [59] Following a month of maintenance and inspections, Bertha resumed tunneling on Friday, April 29, 2016,[3] and crossed 15 feet (4.6 m) under the closed viaduct in an 11-day closure in early May that ended earlier than scheduled. In December 2015, WSDOT estimated that the tunnel would be completed and open to traffic in early 2018. Like a character in a sci-fi flick, the massive drill was also followed through the gloomy tunnel by a Bertha Cam, viewable on the Web, and the state gave the machine a Twitter feed, @BerthaDigsSR99. The tunneling machine known as Bertha began tunneling beneath Seattle in July 2013 (photo at right: the machine's cutterhead being lowered into the launch pit near Seattle's stadiums). Paul figures Bertha put up five or six concrete rings that evening, extending the tunnel by another about 30 to 36 feet. [23][24][25] Over 5,000 members of the public, along with Governor Jay Inslee, were present for the machine's dedication a week prior to the beginning of excavation. “The tunnel is very, very deep in the middle, and adding downtown exits was just impractical with the alignment of the tunnel,” says Brian Russell, SR 99 project manager for HNTB Corp., which is the lead designer on the tunnel project and part of a design-build team that also includes Dragados USA and Tutor Perini Corp. Bertha was a 57.5-foot-diameter (17.5 m) tunnel boring machine built specifically for the Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT) Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel project in Seattle, Washington, United States. [31][32][33][34], In early February 2014, as Bertha was being prepared to resume operation, workers discovered it was overheating and that a damaged main bearings seal needed to be replaced. In December 2015, WSDOT estimated that the tunnel would be completed and open to traffic in early 2018. [8], Some media have also referred to the machine as "Big Bertha". After the tunnel is finished, crews will close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for several weeks to realign the highway to the tunnel. The tunnel opened Feb. 4, 2019, and carries 80,000 vehicles per day. By the miles: • 95 miles of electrical wiring • 21 miles of sprinkler pipes • 15 miles of lights • 13 miles of fiber optic cables • 8 miles of linear heat detectors. 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The viaduct will be permanently closed, and it will take a few weeks before the tunnel will open to traffic.Demolition of the viaduct will begin some time after the tunnel opens to traffic.That paves the way for the Seattle Department of Transportation to build a new Alaskan Way along the downtown waterfront. [57] By March 14, Bertha had finished its 300-foot (91 m) bore to a "safe haven" located ahead of the Alaskan Way Viaduct;[58] allowing WSDOT and STP to prepare for a two-week closure of the viaduct in late April as the machine passed under the vulnerable structure while closely monitored. [11][12], Bertha was designed and manufactured by Hitachi Zosen Sakai Works of Osaka, Japan, and is the world's largest earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine,[13] at a cutterhead diameter of 57.5 feet (17.5 m) across. Bertha resumed tunnel boring on December 22, 2015, but was stopped in early January 2016 after a tethered barge in Elliott Bay damaged nearby piers and a sinkhole opened near the project site. [60], In June 2016, the tunnel reached its lowest point, 115 feet (35 m) under Madison Street in downtown. [14] The machine itself cost $80 million and is owned by Seattle Tunnel Partners, the project contractors. In August 2015, a consortium of eight insurers filed a lawsuit against STP in order to avoid a $143 million payout to cover the cost of repairs to the boring machine. [9][10], In March 2016, regional transit agency Sound Transit decided to drop names for its own tunnel boring machines, used for smaller light rail tunnels, citing unwanted association and confusion with Bertha, especially the machine "Brenda" used on the Northgate Link Extension and University Link Tunnel. The tunnel machine stalled when Bertha’s round cutterhead turned without scraping soil as it dug next to the waterfront. subsidiary of Dragados, S.A., the construction division of ACS Group of Spain; and Tutor Perini Corporation, based in Sylmar, California. 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? Tunnel boring was completed on April 4, 2017, with Bertha’s cutter head breaking into a disassembly vault at the tunnel’s north portal in South Lake Union. [43][44][45], In June 2015, Seattle Tunnel Partners sued to force insurers to payout on the $85 million insurance policy to cover repairs needed after Bertha's cutting teeth were damaged in a collision with a steel pipe in December 2013. Construction began in July 2013 using " Bertha ", at the time the world's largest-diameter tunnel boring machine. 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