After moving less than 200 feet in the past 10 months, the Bertha tunnel boring machine will stop drilling again.I predicted at the time this was going to make Boston's Big Dig look like a marvel of efficiency. (a co-worker from Bahston shrugs and says "Hey, it was only 8 times over budget.")
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday ordered tunneling work to halt temporarily after a sinkhole formed near the waterfront earlier in the week – the same day digging stopped after a barge carrying dirt tipped over and spilled into Elliott Bay.
Seattle Tunnel Partners will have to find the cause of the sinkhole and prove the contractor can prevent similar incidents in the future before resuming work, Inslee said. Bertha is scheduled to start drilling under the viaduct in March.
“STP will not be allowed to resume tunneling until their analysis and work plans meet the satisfaction of our experts,” Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson said in a statement. “I want to remind everyone that replacing the viaduct is critical to public safety.”
Looks like I underestimated Seattle's ability to add an element of low farce to municipal incompetence.
UPDATE: Wikipedia is several months behind the news: Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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