It’s not The Big Dig, it’s not the Kentucky Kickback, no… it’s Big “Bertha!”
SEATTLE, WA – The Libertarian Republic previously reported on the mysterious stoppage of a giant drill in Seattle, Washington. What at first was an interesting story about what may have caused the world’s largest drill to suddenly grind to a halt, has become what may be a story of another expensive and heavily delayed government infrastructure project.
Heraldnet.com in Washington reported that Bertha “may sit stuck for weeks as mystery is solved.” They reported that the boring machine is: “60 feet under the streets and about one-tenth of the way into the planned 1.7-mile tunnel that will carry Highway 99 traffic and replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.”
Big “Bertha,” as she is commonly known, has a twitter account and has been intermittently weighing in on the work stoppage. She was talking to us just fine on December the 6th, when she reported that she was 450 feet from entering zone 2 of the project. But then on December 9th she tweeted:
Seeing some reports that I’m stuck. I’m working fine, but have encountered an obstruction. I’ll keep you posted.
— Bertha (@BerthaDigsSR99) December 9, 2013
But she wasn’t fine. Bertha went quiet for a while as people speculated that the drill might have run into a buried pyramid created by aliens. People honestly have no idea what could stop the world’s largest drill. As The Blaze wrote, Bertha “is designed to tunnel through rock and soil without issue, it’s puzzling as to what could have stopped it.” And then she came back online to speak to us on December the 11th.
Update: It’s not @RSherman_25. http://t.co/d4So4OmJp5 Seriously, though, we’re working hard to determine what’s blocking my path.
— Bertha (@BerthaDigsSR99) December 12, 2013
The tunnel is slated to be completed by the end of 2015, which will result in the creation of a four-lane route for Highway 99. The $1.4 billion contract is part of a larger $3.1 billion project that would replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct in downtown Seattle.
At the moment the Seattle Tunnel Partners are considering what to do in order to solve the problem, but it could take weeks before they arrive at a solution. The leading theory of what stopped Bertha is that she hit a boulder and the soil around it is too soft to hold it firmly so the cutter head can crack it apart.
But did they have any warnings that this project could turn into a major disaster? You bet they did! WSDOT officials took soil samples and learned that they were going to hit thick clay during her journey.
Linea Laird with the Washington Department of Transportation said, “We’ve got really poor soils up and down Alaskan Way.”
There are two options being floated to free the drill. One is that they send in specially trained divers who can work below the surface to try to clear the obstruction. The other is that workers could build a protective wall to hold back sand and groundwater while people drill down into the surface over the bore head to remove the object. The second option is decidedly more expensive and time-consuming.
Bertha is stuck 1,000 feet into the 1.7 mile project. Officials overseeing the dig have no idea how much it will cost to solve or how long it would take.
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