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As Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project heads toward a planned opening next year, Hitachi, the manufacturer of the 57.5-ft-dia tunnel-boring machine Bertha, has clarified its defense claims in the lawsuit and even shared its feelings about a snub it perceived at the breakthrough ceremony marking the progress of the work.
Bertha made the tunnel, but now Seattle Tunnel Partners crews working on behalf of the Washington State Dept. of Transportation must turn that tunnel into a workable 1.7-mile double-decker roadway.
For four years, Bertha, once the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, came packed not only with 57.5-ft worth of diameter and over 8,000 tons of girth, but never-ending drama.
Bertha, the tunnel-boring machine that recently completed a 9,270-ft tunneling journey underneath downtown Seattle has reached the halfway point of another milestone: disassembly.
For anyone wanting to get a peak under the shield of Bertha, the 57.5-ft-diameter tunnel-boring machine that dug a 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle, now is the time.
It took years for Bertha, a tunnel-boring machine, to mine 1.7 miles underneath downtown Seattle, but crews will spend just five months removing the 57.5-ft-dia machine from the receiving pit near Seattle’s Space Needle.
After a final, Feb. 28-March 6 maintenance stop, the world’s largest-diameter tunnel-boring machine has moved less than two blocks away from the disassembly pit in Seattle. TBM “Bertha,” churning a 1.7- mile-long tunnel for a state Route 99 replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, required a stop less than 1,000 ft from the pit to confirm that the 57.5-ft-dia machine was 6 in. off course alignment.
