Tunnel Machine Taking a Year Off

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Or 5

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Time to cancel it and get a refund

Will in Seattle on April 21, 2014 at 1:16 PM

What a colossal debacle.

CPN on April 21, 2014 at 1:20 PM

never give up, WSDOT! it's going to be awesome!

Max Solomon on April 21, 2014 at 1:22 PM

McGinn 2017: Mike Was Right.

DOUG. on April 21, 2014 at 1:24 PM

This will really tank Gregoire's polling numbers.

sloegin on April 21, 2014 at 1:27 PM

Mike had four years to act on his promise that got him elected. He did nothing meaningful to stop.

This isn't even the final. That tunnel will bankrupt the city. Why in God's anyone favored it over the surface option I will never understand having lived through the Big Dig in Boston.

biffp on April 21, 2014 at 1:33 PM

Does it cost a lot? Hitachi has to do the repair, but otherwise don't we just furlough all the workers or shift them to do what work they can on the North portal?

fletc3her on April 21, 2014 at 1:38 PM

@6: The mayor of Seattle has only so much power over a STATE highway. This is Gregoire's debacle. McGinn said she couldn't be trusted, and he was right.

DOUG. on April 21, 2014 at 1:38 PM

Shut. It. Down.

DavidG on April 21, 2014 at 1:43 PM

This is so fucked up. I really wish my vote would have counted for something. I voted against this joke of a tunnel and now I'll be paying for it for a long, long time.

IndicaDogwalk on April 21, 2014 at 1:51 PM

Can't wait for it to get stuck again right under a 50 floor building downtown.

rejemy on April 21, 2014 at 1:53 PM

@8 "McGinn said she couldn't be trusted, and he was right."

Not really, his response was over cost overruns. Until the project goes hundreds of millions of dollars into the red and Olympia decides Seattle has to pay for it, then and only then would McGinn be right.

Kinison on April 21, 2014 at 1:59 PM

I'm sure it will finish 'on time'. There's no way any additional problems might occur...

deign_to_say on April 21, 2014 at 2:12 PM

#12, do you believe Seattle isn't going to pay for the overruns that this breakdown is already causing? You think the company that built Bertha is actually going to pay for this?
The project is already in the red. Seattle is already on the hook. Your "untils" are ships that already sailed.

on April 21, 2014 at 2:16 PM

@12: You're right. I'll check back in then.

DOUG. on April 21, 2014 at 2:22 PM

Slog poll: Did we tell you so?
-Told you so
-Told you so
-(fucking) Told you so

Dade on April 21, 2014 at 2:31 PM

I look forward to getting Zombie John Henry's autograph when the tunnel is completed on time and on budget.

seatackled on April 21, 2014 at 3:15 PM

*sigh...* I hate this even more now.

treacle on April 21, 2014 at 4:13 PM

@16, you forgot "McGinn told you so."

biffp on April 21, 2014 at 4:19 PM

I love their "Never explain, Never apologize" can-do attitude.

Mugwumpt on April 21, 2014 at 4:31 PM

So it has officially turned into the cluster that many feared it would. What the hell with a tunnel anyway?

lauramae on April 21, 2014 at 4:56 PM

So, who's taking bets on when the 520 Bridge project will fail?

Oh, Seattle, will you ever get any transportation project right, on time and on budget...How's that citywide monorail system coming...oh, right...

on April 21, 2014 at 5:30 PM

Wow. Who could have foreseen these problems ahead of time? I wish someone had said something.

sperifera on April 21, 2014 at 6:05 PM

Any elected official who supported this harebrained scheme needs to ground down and used as lubricant for the main bearing, assuming the damn thing ever works again.
Fill in the tunnel, repair the sea wall, tear down the viaduct and be done with it.

Pol Pot on April 21, 2014 at 10:31 PM

Am I the only person who thinks they will complete this one day? I think it will be good once it's done.
I hate the viaduct.

London has tubes, they work, usually very well. England has the Channel Tunnel, 34 miles of underwater tunnel, that was a bigger deal, and is awesome. France in half an hour? Maybe getting to Northgate in 20 minutes might be possible, who knows.

Chandira on April 22, 2014 at 10:36 AM

Dori Monson predicted this disaster would be over budget and nowhere near on schedule Five Years ago!!He even bet Paula Hammond his job on the air that it would be way over budget and delayed. We need to start paying more attention to Dori and less to wsdot!

dorimonsonfan on April 22, 2014 at 11:37 AM

You were told, Seattle, now suck it up and live with your idiot mistake.

on April 22, 2014 at 2:05 PM

And no one wants to be standing at the press conference podium when the firing squad comes out demanding answers and/or heads. Will anyone apologize for this clusterfuck? Will anyone acknowledge this thing has been beset by mistakes that were perfectly foreseeable? Will any "leader" in this city/state ask propose re-thinking this decision? You're gonna hear a whole lot of this to justify continuing with this project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs

seattlestew on April 22, 2014 at 2:28 PM

Circle the wagons and double down. Build a new tunneling machine and begin digging from the other side. Problem completely solved. And yes, I do work for the government.

Pope Urbane on April 22, 2014 at 2:52 PM

So......Big Bertha just joined our ineffective, grossly overpaid Congress.
Holy. fucking. shit.

@27: Agreed. Especially when WSDOT allows any fool with ten bucks the unquestioned ability to obtain an oversized load permit online, and venture out without a height / weight inspection--all BEFORE taking out an entire bridge on I-5 and dumping unsuspecting drivers and vehicles immediately behind them into the Skagit River by passing another truck, while the McDonald's cheeseburger chomping pilot driver polishes her nails up ahead.

auntie grizelda on April 22, 2014 at 7:33 PM

re @31: Maybe the anagram for WSDOT should really be Washington State's Departmentally Useless Mismanaged Bunglers, or WSDUMB.

auntie grizelda on April 22, 2014 at 7:40 PM

@30,31,32 laughing out loud!

dorimonsonfan on April 22, 2014 at 8:35 PM

I want to thank all you progressives who voted for these progressives that wanted a tunnel to help all the rich folks get millions more for their properties once the tunnel is built. Yes those wonderful democrats taking care of the working man brings a tear to my eye. It could be from laughter from how gullible a progressive really is

behappy on April 22, 2014 at 9:18 PM

Meanwhile, Metro is fighting for scraps.

tedwardma on April 23, 2014 at 4:37 AM

They do realize that they have to do more than just build the tunnel between the portals, right ? There's a road surfaces, emergency exits, fire suppression, etc.
http://cloud3.wsbcdn.com/blog/wp-content…

ChefJoe on April 26, 2014 at 12:38 PM

Tunnel Machine Taking a Year Off

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