Posted on 12/26/2013 5:02:00 PM PST by Windflier
Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblock—so mysterious, it is only known for now as "the object."
The New York Times reports that the machine—300 feet long and 5 stories tall—has ground to a halt. Built precisely not to be stopped by, well, just about anything, Bertha has apparently met her match. But what exactly is it? "Something unknown, engineers say—and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown—has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet," the NYT writes.
It is something the managers on site "still simply refer to as 'the object.'"
Some hypothesize a colossal ice age boulder or two, locked down in the sediments beneath the city. Others think it might be "buried train engines."
Whether it's ice age super-rocks, buried trains, a lost city—or even a UFO—engineers might have to work "at atmospheric pressures similar to what a diver would experience," the New York Times adds, and even spend "time in a decompression chamber" on their way back up to the surface, to find out.
So what is it? What is "the object" blocking Bertha's path? Just look at the size of the tunnels it's been digging; whatever's in the way has got to be one tough mother.
No having to back the machine up, no need to send a crew in a tight space, quick sample obtained.
All manner of oilfield exploration type tools could be sent through a 6" access hole, just like in a well.
BFL
Ha! Good one! That can of hers would stop just about anything!!
LOL...I was just faster on the draw with Photoshop...I was disappointed (well, not really...:) to see others writing it, but it is always a race to get something in there first!
Maybe you could use another one of the Mooch’s fat ass pictures, (she has a lot of ‘em for ya to pick from!), in another photoshop of Bertha gettin’ jammed up in the tunnel by Mooch’s humongous rear end?
Sounds like a large deposit of leverite.
Had to look that one up. Unfortunately for the boring operators, they don't have the luxury of 'leaving it right there'.
So did we all, but we (and our forebears) have allowed an ideology foreign to everything enshrined in the Declaration and the Constitution to overthrow the culture those lofty ideals depend on.
The Framers cautioned that our system of government is only fit for a moral people. With the decline in morality, we've seen the ever enlarging encroachment of that foreign ideology overtake our American traditions, sensibilities, and and way of life. The Constitution is now being overturned, as a result.
It's been my opinion for some time now, that we must now look to the Declaration for remedies. In time, I think we will, and that will be a good day, indeed.
Things in this country may seem dark now, but they won't always be that way. There are too many of us that desire and demand the sort of civilization the Framers envisioned for it to perish from the earth. We will prevail, but not without effort and a good deal of sacrifice on our part.
Welcome to the Second American Revolution.
I don't know for a fact that the cutter head isn't designed with such a feature already. I've only done a bit of light reading on this machine in the last few days.
Who knows? Maybe the reporters don't know what the hell they're talking about. I'd say that's a virtual certainty, given what we know of today's media. Bertha is as sophisticated as anything we fly in space. I doubt the engineers would have forgotten something so basic to the design.
http://www.seattlemag.com/gallery/closer-look-bertha?page=3
Here’s an article with some photos. It says it can “swallow” boulders 3 ft. in diameter. I’m guessing that what look like openings in the cutting face ARE openings so that the material can make its way from from the face, through the cutting head, and then onto conveyors out the back of the tunnel to get hauled away.
It seems that they must be taking their time in exploring what the object is on the off chance that it is some sort of man made object such as a pipe (doubtful at 80-feet deep), building footing (also doubtful), or whatever.
I’m still not up to speed on the whole pressurized thing. If it is just the face of the bit that is pressurized - then how could they have all of the holes in the bit to allow the waste material through? So maybe the pressure has something to do with why they can’t send some miners down with jackleg drills, etc. to explore.
Anyway - it will be interesting to see what it is, and more importantly, how they solve the problem.
One would think?
https://twitter.com/BerthaDigsSR99
A link to a photo of the “middle body” of the tunnel boring machine. Looks a lot more complicated than I can imagine. Looks like it would be quite the effort to get men and equipment through this and up to the front of the machine.
Sorry - that is a link to Betha’s twitter page (lots of cool photos). The photo of the complicated “middle body” is from may 14.
We were letting our imaginations run last night talking with my kids about this. The thought came up that what if a Time Machine located in Seattle in the year 3000 went back 20,000 years? Say around the time between glacial periods and Seattle was just a large river or delta of sediments being laid down. I would imagine that the time machine would keeps it’s lat/long coordinates, but - being subject to the laws of gravity, would end up on the ground surface of 20,000 years ago (say about 80 feet deep).
The poor guy can’t get his time machine back to the future, and is stuck. Only to be uncovered now. I’m guessing that is probably it! (Where is Art Bell when you need him the most!?)
Here's the latest article I could find about it:
Seattle tunnel machine still stalled by mystery blockage
Published: Dec 26, 2013 at 1:18 PM PST Last Updated: Dec 26, 2013 at 1:35 PM PST
SEATTLE (AP) - The huge machine drilling a highway tunnel under downtown Seattle remains stalled by a mysterious blockage.
A spokeswoman for the state Transportation Department, KaDeena Yerkan, says Thursday we probably won't know anything new until after the first of the year.
Wells have been pumping out water so that workers might be able to identify the obstruction that halted progress on Dec. 7.
The machine called Bertha is about 60 feet under Seattle streets and about one-tenth of the way toward completing a 1.7-mile tunnel. It will carry Highway 99 traffic and allow the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct on the waterfront.
I think the wildest hypothesis is that it's a long buried ancient spacecraft that's made of something too hard for the cutter heads to bite through.
If such a thing were ever to be discovered, wouldn't you know it would be in Seattle? Heh...
This just smells like the government and a bureaucracy is involved in not knowing what the hell is going on, LOL.
I could just picture an old iron-ass company man or tool pusher being told,"We've been here a week on your well and have no idea what the problem is", it wouldn't be pretty :)
I hear ya.
I've worked in construction my whole life, and can tell you from experience that most customers on a job that large would be breathing down the necks of the project managers, who would in turn, be down on the decks busting chops to get some answers.
In the real world, heads roll over delays like this. In the world of big gubmint......shrug.
It is obviously the subterranean understructure under Bill Gates’ house.
Needs to be blasted with whatever it takes to dislodge it.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022564294_berthasoggyxml.html
The above is an update on the situation.
Well, sort of an update. They are still stopped. AND, six(?) borings have been drilled in front of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) at 5-foot spacings - and they didn’t hit anything! Curiouser and curiouser. Perhaps it IS a vertical pile or something? Sounds like they might have had workers in front of the bit today to examine things.
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