Tag: Seattle Big Bertha

Roadbuilding

Board rules WSDOT should have given contractor more warning about pipe struck by Big Bertha before stall

In regard to the drilling of the new State Route 99 tunnel below Seattle, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has few friends left. There remains disagreement between the department and the city of Seattle over who will pay to repair a water main damaged during the excavation of a repair pit for Big Bertha, […]

May 12, 2015

Roadbuilding

Big Bertha breaks through: tunnel-boring machine enters repair pit, ready for disassembly

Though she remains very far from being done, Big Bertha completed a very important leg in her journey beneath Seattle last week, breaking through a thick wall of concrete and into a 12-story pit. According to a report from the Associated Press, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine moved 57 feet since February 17 to enter […]

March 9, 2015

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