Tag: tunnel-boring machines: Page 2

Roadbuilding

Did Seattle’s SR 99 tunnel really require Big Bertha? Indeco argues breakers are the answer

Tunnel boring machines such as Big Bertha, the 7,000-ton machine sidelined after a massive fail under the streets of Seattle, shouldn’t always be considered the most efficient option for creating big dig projects, says a new publication produced by Italian hammer manufacturer Indeco and released at the Intermat construction equipment trade show this week. […]

April 23, 2015

Roadbuilding

PHOTOS: Big Bertha’s 2,000-ton front end lifted to the surface. How the world’s largest tunneler was raised

[imagebrowser id=225] After a year of slumber and almost a month after chewing her way into a 12-story repair pit, Big Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, is finally under repair in Seattle. Crews worked for the better part of March to disassemble the machine’s front end before lifting the machine’s cutterhead and body shield panels—a […]

April 1, 2015

Roadbuilding

PHOTOS: Fixing Bertha: How workers dug a 12-story pit to raise world’s largest tunnel boring machine from the dead

No. 8 Story in 2015 « No. 9 No. 7 »   [imagebrowser id=194] The Big Bertha saga recently received a major update: crews with lead contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners have finished digging the 120-foot pit that will be used to access the world’s largest tunnel boring machine for necessary repairs. Now that the pit […]

February 11, 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

Watch construction crews bore and blast below New York City to build the 2nd Avenue subway line

“New York City is one of the toughest places to build anything.” That quote from NYC subway train service supervisor Bill Wall, more than anything else, is what stands out in the excellent video below from the New York Times which chronicles the difficulty the city and its construction crews have had in building the new […]

October 22, 2014

Construction Equipment

Camera gives a live view of construction on Big Bertha’s 12-story repair access pit

Just because Big Bertha is down for nearly a year, that doesn’t mean work around the world’s largest tunnel boring machine has come to a halt. And now thanks to a camera set up by the Washington State Department of Transportation, anyone can watch as that work progresses. After completing one-tenth of the 1.7-mile State Route 99 […]

May 13, 2014

Construction Equipment

PHOTOS: Amazing images of subway construction in the man-made caverns below New York City

[imagebrowser id=58] Back in June we showed you a handful of pictures from deep below New York City. And while they depicted ongoing construction on the city’s Second Avenue Subway, they looked like more something out of a sci-fi movie. The Second Avenue Subway is the first line to be built in NYC since 1932. […]

April 7, 2014

Construction Equipment

Before Bertha repairs begin, archaeologists will test soil for artifacts

Before workers in Seattle begin to dig a 12-story pit to make the necessary repairs to get the world’s largest tunnel boring machine running once again, they must step aside to allow archaeologists to search the soil for artifacts. Sixty vertical holes were drilled into the soil 48 feet above dormant Big Bertha, the tunnel-boring […]

March 25, 2014

Construction Equipment

Lady Bird is the 1,300-ton tunnel-boring machine digging DC’s 13-mile sewer tunnel (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

[imagebrowser id=46] Each year in Washington, D.C., about 2 billion gallons of raw sewage is dumped into the Potomac River, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek, according to a report from the Washington Post. But Lady Bird, a massive tunnel-boring machine, is working to change that. The machine is digging a $2.6 billion 13-mile tunnel system […]

March 19, 2014

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

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

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