World's largest tunneling machine heading to Seattle
SEATTLE (AP) - The world's largest-diameter tunnel boring machine is being loaded in 41 pieces onto a ship in Japan for a trip to Seattle.
The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reports the $80 million machine named Bertha was built at a factory in Osaka and is expected to arrive by the end of the month.
Bertha will be reassembled in a pit to tunnel a new Highway 99 route under downtown Seattle to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
The tunnel will have a diameter of nearly 58 feet and is set to start boring this summer. The tunnel is scheduled to open in late 2015.
The tunnel borer was named Bertha in honor of Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926. The name was submitted by both a second-grade student at Lincoln Elementary School in Hoquiam and a fifth-grade class at Poulsbo Elementary School.
The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reports the $80 million machine named Bertha was built at a factory in Osaka and is expected to arrive by the end of the month.
Bertha will be reassembled in a pit to tunnel a new Highway 99 route under downtown Seattle to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
The tunnel will have a diameter of nearly 58 feet and is set to start boring this summer. The tunnel is scheduled to open in late 2015.
The tunnel borer was named Bertha in honor of Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926. The name was submitted by both a second-grade student at Lincoln Elementary School in Hoquiam and a fifth-grade class at Poulsbo Elementary School.
We feel your pain Seattle! Our misguided transportation officials in Los Angeles want to build an even bigger dig, 5 miles. They want to use Bertha when you are finished with her and add 3 more TBMs! The waste of money and risk of safety is senseless. We will be following your story and the cost overruns to be sure.
i don't think the thing is boring at all...it looks rather exciting...
Seems a shame to get it dirty.
From what part of China are we getting the cement for the concrete for the tunnel casing??
Now we can make a break for it! Â You distract the guards, and when I get to Yakima, I'll call.
All right, here is an idea.As it will already be here, why not bore under LK Washington and replace that ugly bridge.There is a large piece of underutilized property just south of the current bridge which could be used as a starting point.There would be no worries about crumbling pontoons sinking in a storm.No need for expansion rails to carry another little toy RR.They could install bicycle elevators at each end for only a few million more, thereby allowing bicyclists to commute to and from the East-side in comfort all winter long.For just a few million more we could install moving sidewalks for pedestrian traffic as well.The more I think about it the better it $ounds.
@oldster70Â Do you know how deep Lake Washington is?
@oldster70 Looking at the current projects under way, money is no problem.
The thing that pisses me off more than anything about this is that we have some of the best tunnel boring machine companies right here in Washington state and they chose to go out of the country to build it. All that tax revenue, job creation, etc. was sent outside the country instead of just keeping it here at home. Â
I hope they can still use this machine after its done, like rent it out or resale it so that it doesnât become a $80 million pile of metal.
Did these kids really name the machine after Bertha Knight Landes or did the city to give it a back story?
The refurbishment of TBM's is actually a pretty big business.  It happens all the time.
Well now, here is a disaster waiting to happen. Can't wait to hear about the cost overruns on this WSDOT! I guess if it comes in at 30% over budget we are lucky....
I have a GREAT idea!
Send it to Olympia instead and tunnel in and around the capital while they're in session and suck them all down into a huge sink hole then black top over the top of the entire area afterwards!
don't do it! it's not too late to build an elevated tsunami-safe suspended roadway at 1/30 the cost! this tunnel in an earthquake zone next to the ocean is a very poor idea!
Lets hope Japan also sends the ones who took it apart reassemble it before are crack work force gets its hands on it...
Oh...so this is a custom made design...that cost how much? $80 million? How much of the budget is that, anyway? I was certainly hoping it wasn't the same machine they used in Boston for the most over-budget, over-time, breakdown laden pile known as the "big dig"...ouch...
"World's largest tunneling machine heading to Seattle" Dr. Evil threatens to hold Seattle ransom demanding one million, no, make that, one hundred billion dollars.
I thought that might be Kim K's new toy.
Whether you Love or Hate this project, you have to admit that this TBM is @%$#(@* H U G E!!!
I can't wait for it to arrive ONLY for the sole purpose of witnessing how massive the TBM cutter head will be in person.
I have been watching the progress of Bertha ever since the contract was awarded and am still blown away at the shear scale of this engineering marvel and at a diameter of 58 feet, it is one hell of a marvel.
Now be prepared to pay $50 tolls ( NOT Â REALLY ) for the next 50 years to pay off this piss poor transportation blunder.
And tunnel hate will begin in 3, 2, 1...
People take for granted such massive engineering. This is a major tool! And it was done with all that "sciency" stuff.
Who would have figured...
That giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of your tax dollars getting ready to be literally poured down a hole.This is possibly the biggest waste of tax dollars in the history of the state.It sole purpose is to open the waterfront to high rise, high tax investment which will benefit the city coffers at the expense of the rest of the taxpayers not living in this socialist paradise.
Not sure why they named it Bertha....I would have named it Ron Jeremy.
Coming soon to Seattle: Giant car-filled sewer, right after the next earthquake.
How about coming to Seattle soon a giant hugely over budget watery grave for anyone trapped in there after an earthquake built by Kewitt construction. Ya know it is going to leak just like the pontoons they are building for the 520 bridge.
@Charl317Â
Nice screed - only if Kewitt Construction was actually, well, running the project. (hint, they aren't)
 http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/About/Contracting
Never met a woman named Bertha that wasn't big.
@Doloresdecabeza I have. My great aunt Bertha, about 4'6" and maybe 90 pounds. Had a big heart though!