Tag: State Route 99

Roadbuilding

$1.8B, nine-bridge improvement project completed thanks to Calif.’s SB-1

Caltrans reports that it has officially completed a $1.8 billion project that improved nine bridges in five Sacramento Valley counties. Get more details here.

December 18, 2018

Roadbuilding

NTSB: Fatal bus crash caused by driver fatigue, regulators’ failure

A new report from the National Transportation Safety Board on a motorcoach crash that killed four passengers August 2, 2016, near Livingston, California, criticizes federal regulators for not doing enough to prevent such accidents. “Here’s yet another fatal crash involving both a motorcoach carrier with a starkly evident history of safety problems and a severely […]

November 17, 2017

Roadbuilding

WSDOT building world’s first flexible bridge

The Washington State Department of Transportation is building an offramp from Highway 99 to South Dearborn Street in Seattle that has a flexible column designed to sustain so little damage in an earthquake that that it can be used immediately afterwards. The Seattle Times reports that it will be the first bridge in the world with […]

March 13, 2017

Roadbuilding

Damage to Big Bertha worse than previously thought

Now that crews are well into the process of dismantling her front-end for necessary repairs, it’s clear that damage to Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, is worse than previously thought. Making matters worse, the tunneler likely won’t resume its work drilling the State Route 99 tunnel beneath Seattle by August as the project’s […]

May 26, 2015

Roadbuilding

Big Bertha wakes from one-year nap, begins to chew her way into repair pit

For the first time in more than a year, Big Bertha actually bored. According to a report from the Seattle Times, the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, dormant deep below Seattle since late January 2014, has drilled forward a total of 6 feet between late Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon as crews begin the process of moving Bertha into […]

February 19, 2015

Home

Big Bertha’s delays have pushed back the opening of the tunnel it’s digging by 20 months…so far

Seattle’s new State Route 99 tunnel is officially 20 months behind schedule, and it’s all Bertha’s fault. The Associated Press reports Washington State Department of Transportation officials are now saying that the new tunnel being dug beneath Seattle by Big Bertha, the largest tunnel-boring machine in the world, won’t open until August 2017. And they […]

December 24, 2014

Construction Equipment

Drilling delays a problem for tunnel-boring machine Big Bertha even as she slumbers below ground

Crews in Seattle are now expected to finish digging a 12-story pit to reach stalled tunnel-boring machine Big Bertha one month later than planned due to concrete pilings proving more difficult to drill through than expected, according to a report from the Seattle Times. Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine went down from overheating in late January, […]

July 31, 2014

Construction Equipment

Repairs to Big Bertha will include 86 tons of steel reinforcement to tunnel-boring machine’s bearing, cutter drive

The largest tunnel-boring machine in the world needs a bit of reinforcement against the “wet and abrasive soils” deep below Seattle, according to a report from the Seattle Times. As such, repairs for Big Bertha will include the installation of 216 steel ribs and plates that will add 86 tons to the 7,000-ton machine, the paper […]

June 18, 2014

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