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March 5, 2015

Crews ready to start taking Bertha apart

By JOURNAL STAFF

Photo from WSDOT [enlarge]

Bertha is now in position for crews to begin disassembling the tunneling machine and lift it to the surface for repairs.

The machine reached the stopping point late Tuesday.

Seattle Tunnel Partners restarted Bertha on Feb. 17, mined through the rescue pit's southern wall, and moved the machine 57 feet onto a 1,750-ton concrete support cradle. STP built nine concrete rings behind the machine.

Next STP will disconnect hundreds of hoses and cables, remove motors and weld lift points onto the machine.

A news release from WSDOT said the disassembly will take weeks.

Once that is done, crews will use a giant gantry crane to lift four pieces weighing up to 2,000 tons to the surface. The largest of those is the 57.5-foot-diameter cutterhead.

Last month Chris Dixon of STP said Bertha could resume tunneling in earnest by December. He said tunneling is projected to finish in late 2016. The entire project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel should be done in late 2017.

WSDOT has posted a time lapse video of Bertha from last Friday until yesterday at http://youtu.be/LS52u6Y_tXU.




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