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Seattle's Behemoth Boring Machine, Idle Since 2013, Makes Some Progress
After being blocked by an obstruction ("the object") which left it idle just over two years ago, repair work has continued on Bertha, Seattle's enormous tunnel-boring machine. Now, reports KOMO News and The Seattle Times, Bertha is once again ready to work. From The Times' coverage:
Tuesday morning's push of one and a half feet provided Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) enough space behind Bertha’s drive motors to fasten the next concrete ring at the 1,085-foot mark of the planned 9,270-foot tube. Chris Dixon, STP project manager, is calling this a testing phase. The team is measuring how Bertha responds while rotating through heavy loads of compacted sand. Last week, a fixed steel arm in the front end broke and needed a one-day repair. ... This week’s two-day push would leave the nose of the drill just short of the north edge of the concrete vault, dug in 2014 so STP could reach and lift the 4million-pound front end for repairs. The winning bid from STP called for the tunnel to be completed this month.
I understand that when it hit the metal casing, it overheated. Couple of questions I've got that after looking, didn't find the answer:
I thought this was capable of boring through rock, how come it couldn't go through a metal pipe? Ok, it can't go through the pipe, how could this thing not have tons of sensors capable of detecting the overheating issue?
In a country who's infrastructure is crumbling; roads, bridges, fresh/waste water systems, electrical grid - failure to fix public works projects IS a threat to our security
spending mountains of my money on worthless municipal make-work projects rather than defending our country
Maybe we should be spending more on mental health.
On paper you may be correct. But in real life, the "machine" did 1 mile in nearly 3 years. The theory doesn't survive reality. You can't build a real tunnel with "it should work"s.
Compare this to the Panama Canal: 48 miles in 10 years, with the most advanced tech being steam-powered excavating machines. Not underground, but there was a mountain to go through, water to deal with, and all the jungle stuff (diseases, insects, animals).
This Seattle thing is the worst case ever of machine worshipping and engineering mental masturbation.
lucm, indeed.
Uhh, you really think a bunch of guys with no machinery beyond picks and shovels could dig out 60' x 60' x 1.5' of solid rock, hardened earth, mud, and sand, all while laying behind them the steal support rings and wire mesh and concrete walls to support the tunnel, AND relocate all that dug up material away from the dig site?
Please understand I'm not meaning to advocate for the "picks and shovels" side of the argument. But FYI - Seattle already has a 110-year-old train tunnel (the "Great Northern Tunnel"), dug with picks and shovels and dynamite, that runs through pretty much the exact same area and types of soils. This new tunnel is actually going to pass under the Great Northern tunnel!
I find it funny because a lot of people who simply don't want to spend money are using the argument that the complex soils in the area make tunneling impractical. They obviously don't know about the existing tunnel either.
In reality, the fundamental problem here is the people making decisions tried to save a little money by digging one giant pipe rather than going with the more typical two-bore twin tunnels. When you push boundaries there are always additional risks.
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