Tag: tunnel boring machine: Page 2

Construction Equipment
Repairs to Big Bertha will require a 12-story pit and removing the tunnel-boring machine’s cutterhead
Officials from the Washington State Department of Transportation have announced that in order to repair the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, her head will need to come off. The announcement, which came during a presentation to city council members in Seattle, comes nearly three weeks after WSDOT officials announced that Big Bertha would be out of […]
February 27, 2014
Big Bertha’s cutterhead being lowered into place last year for the start of her dig beneath Seattle.
Construction Equipment
Tunnel-boring machine Big Bertha shut down for “months” due to complexity of needed repairs
Washington State Department of Transportation officials say Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, is likely out of commission for months. An inspection conducted after the machine overheated in late January found that several cutterhead openings were clogged with dirt along with considerable damage to seals around the machine’s main bearing, according to a report […]
February 11, 2014
What Big Bertha leaves behind. Two workers walk through the first rings of tunnel dug by Big Bertha in October. Credit: WSDOT Flickr
Construction Equipment
Baby Bertha? Bechtel builds mini tunnel-boring machine using 50,000 Legos
The Lego Movie, which hit theaters this past weekend, is fantastic. But we wish the folks who made it had talked to Bechtel first to include the company’s incredible miniature tunnel-boring machine (TBM). The company commissioned professional Lego builders Bright Bricks who assembled a moving, 6-1/2 foot TBM using 50,000 Lego bricks. Like Big Bertha, […]
February 10, 2014
Bechtel LEGO tunnel-boring machine
Construction Equipment
Another mystery overheats, halts tunnel-boring machine Big Bertha once more
The Washington State Department of Transportation officials in charge of the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine have another mystery on their hands deep below Seattle. After finally getting moving again last week following a two-month period of downtime, Big Bertha has been halted once again. This time, for a different, and unknown, reason. Workers put Bertha […]
February 4, 2014
A surveyor sets up his equipment inside the SR 99 tunnel beneath Seattle. Tunnel-boring machine Big Bertha has completed 1,000 feet of the tunnel.
Construction Equipment
A steel pipe is what brought Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, to a halt
The mystery is solved—in part at least. After Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, was brought to an abrupt halt on December 6th, officials at the Washington State Department of Transportation were stumped as to what was in the way. Now they know that the obstruction is a large steel pipe. A steel pipe […]
January 6, 2014
Construction Equipment
Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object: Seattle’s Big Bertha halted by mystery object
Has Big Bertha met her match? She has, at least for the time being. The world’s largest tunnel-boring machine was recently brought to a halt 60 feet beneath the streets of Seattle, Washington when it hit an unknown object and could move no farther, reported KOMOnews.com. The five-story head of the machine was completely brought […]
December 19, 2013
Bertha isn’t exactly incapable of going through solid objects. Here, she starts her 2-mile journey by chewing through a wall in July. Credit: WSDOT Flickr
Construction Equipment
Subway expansion in Delhi to set record with simultaneous use of 34 tunnel-boring machines
Seattle might have the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, but Delhi, India will soon have a record-setting host of the machines at its disposal. Construction workers in India’s capital city have begun Phase III of the extremely complex task of extending the city’s subway system. How complex? The engineering team recently announced that it will be […]
June 28, 2013
Credit: Delhi Metro // DesignBuildSource.com.au
Construction Equipment
Big Bertha, world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, lowered into starting position in Seattle
With the digging of the Washington State Route 99 tunnel in Seattle scheduled to start in July, the Washington State Department of Transportation recently lowered the head of Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, into the pit that will serve as its starting position. Bertha made her triumphant arrival in Seattle at the beginning of April […]
June 5, 2013
Big Bertha lowered into pit
Construction Equipment
The equipment (and cost) behind NYC’s Second Avenue Subway
CNN Money has a really interesting piece on the $4.5 billion budget of the first mile-and-a-half segment of New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, currently under construction: What contributes to the mammoth tab? Big machinery, for starters. At $800,000 a piece, equipment such as hydraulic drill jumbos and load-haul-dump loaders can rack up a bill […]
June 14, 2012
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