Highway 99 tunnel team “going hyperbaric” to inspect Bertha

The Seattle Times ^ | january 14, 2014 | Mike Lindblom

[steve86]

After drilling four deep shafts and sending a man down to look last week, Seattle Tunnel Partners and the state Department of Transportation don’t fully know yet what’s blocking tunnel machine Bertha, some 60 feet deep next to Pioneer Square.

So the DOT announced Tuesday it is “going hyperbaric,” by sending workers to the pressurized cutting face. Teams of five or six workers would take turns inspecting the huge area.

Bertha is equipped with two hatches for men and one for equipment, to reach a five-foot wide chamber where excavated muck enters the conveyor system, right behind the 57-foot rotary cutter face. However, DOT says the workers won’t need to wear scuba gear, but will simply need time for their bodies to adapt to pressure changes.

[steve86]

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I thought they figured out that it was a well casing that was blocking it.

[dennisw]

im a betting crashed ufo artifacts

[neodad]

I’m betting they found the Horta...

[steve86]

The story changes every day.

[ClearCase_guy]

Balrog

[rockrr]

Boston’s “Big Dig” made them the laughing stock for years. Wouldn’t you know it the Seattlunatics would outdo them?

[longfellowsmuse]

I bet they found out these workers voted for Romney

[The Cajun]

I thought they figured out that it was a well casing that was blocking it

Yup, thought that was a done deal a week or so ago.
Now they say they still don't know WTH.
Sounds like a government/union/clown operation to me.

[Bobalu]

[Mastador1]

Well I hope it’s not injured because Bones is dead Jim, he’s dead!

[Incorrigible]

 

Maybe it's because Benny is driving! Should never have trusted that mutant!

 

[Born to Conserve]

Giant psychic grasshoppers

[gunsequalfreedom]

My guess is that it is like that small bit of something that causes the garbage disposal to jam it is something similarly small. When you finally get it out of the garbage disposal you can’t believe such a small bit of something could stop it.

Look for an announcement that a very small rock got in just the wrong place and brought Bertha to a stop.

[gunsequalfreedom]

The story changes every day.

Some editor keeps telling the report to go get a story about it and everyday the engineer tells the reporter they don't know yet.

[tet68]

Right, probably a spoon.

[NoCmpromiz]

I’m betting they found the Horta...

If the Horta were there, the tunnel(s) would already be, um, dug...

But if Bertha injured one they're in trouble, and Spock isn't there to talk it into helping out either...

[smokingfrog]

Big Bertha ran into a gigantic diamond that wore down all the teeth on the cutter.

[bobby.223]

Anything is possible in that liberal sewer/cesspool known as Seattle. Maybe somebody moved that huge commie statue of Lenin from the Fremont District to out in front of Bertha.......

[thecodont]

Balrog

Yep