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July 24, 2015

Yellow stacks go up at tunnel's north portal

By JOURNAL STAFF

Photo from WSDOT [enlarge]

Seattle Tunnel Partners on Wednesday installed four yellow ventilation stacks atop the north portal operations building for the Highway 99 tunnel.

If that seems like deja vu, it's not: STP earlier this month installed an identical set of 40-foot-tall steel stacks atop the south portal operations building. Each weighs about 15 tons and is 10 feet in diameter.

The stacks were made by Wayron, a DBE firm based in Longview. They will vent air from four centrifugal fans at each operations building. Each fan can move 160,000 cubic feet of air per minute.

A news release from the Washington State Department of Transportation says the stacks' bright color was inspired by the agency's yellow maintenance vehicles, some of which will be stored within the operations buildings.

Bertha, the machine digging the tunnel, broke down in December 2013. Crews from Hitachi Zosen, Bertha's creator, replaced the bearings and are putting the machine back together.

The latest schedule calls for Bertha to resume tunneling on Nov. 23. The tunnel that will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct isn't expected to open until spring 2018, almost three years later than originally scheduled.




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