Slog Jan 15, 2014 4:08 PM

State Resorting to Increasingly Bizarre Analogies to Explain Stuck Tunnel Digger

by Dominic Holden

Comments

1
Going hyperbaric is now the opposite end of the speed spectrum from "They've gone to plaid"
GlibReaper on January 15, 2014 at 4:13 PM · Report this
2
I don't think the folksy tone is doing them any favors.
fletc3her on January 15, 2014 at 4:17 PM · Report this
3
So Bertha's going to a podiatrist or something? Who's gonna foot the bill?

SEE WHAT I DID THERE.
Christopher Frizzelle on January 15, 2014 at 4:21 PM · Stranger Staff
4
Inslee and his new WSDOT secretary should use this as an opportunity to clean house at WSDOT - get rid of the Highways Über Alles people that brought us such disasters as the cracked 520 pontoons and the broken boring machine. Now's the time to abandon the waterfront tunnel project, use the unspent money to save and expand Metro service, and focus on making sure WSDOT doesn't use any more ridiculously flawed traffic projections to justify megaprojects they can't handle.
junipero on January 15, 2014 at 4:25 PM · Report this
5
I wouldn’t worry much. The 12th man is sure to shake her free on Sunday.
You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me on January 15, 2014 at 4:26 PM · Report this
6
@3: I find your jokes quite boring.
Hanoumatoi on January 15, 2014 at 4:26 PM · Report this
7
@3

Trust #6, he's referenced Foucault in the past. Although I liked the joke, though the SEE WHAT I DID THERE could have been left out, either way.
dnt trust me on January 15, 2014 at 4:33 PM · Report this
8
@6 good one!
katrat on January 15, 2014 at 4:33 PM · Report this
9
@4. Please run for office. You totally get how it all this works, clearly. I mean, maybe WSDOT can just do a wire transfer to KC Metro? And that Viaduct is good for another 50 years, right? It's all good!
on January 15, 2014 at 4:34 PM · Report this
10
Have no idea? It seems they are evaluating the magnitude of the issue and scope of the cure. It's not 'have no idea' ... is it?
NotSean on January 15, 2014 at 4:35 PM · Report this
11
Who cares? Why is Slog so obsessed with this fucking tunnel digger? It's underground, out of the way, and doesn't bother anyone. I'm way more concerned why the Mercer improvements are taking YEARS and fuck up my life every time I try to get on I-5.
Keenan C on January 15, 2014 at 4:43 PM · Report this
12
@2, exactly.
Read Bertha's twitter feed. The tone was fine, I guess, when things were going well but now that they aren't she's reminding me of HAL.
Tim Keck on January 15, 2014 at 4:51 PM · Stranger Staff
13
i agree with @10 that they HAVE an idea what the problem is - a steel well casing that's already contacted the curring head and is no longer vertical. they just don't know specifically what the fix is.

shit happens. tunnel construction is hard. they don't want anyone to die. i hope that's ok with you.
Max Solomon on January 15, 2014 at 4:55 PM · Report this
14
Erica's got a good working theory: "Bad news about "Bertha" is inversely proportional to the cutesiness of WSDOT's proclamations about it—I mean, "her."" http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profi…
TomJohnsonJr on January 15, 2014 at 4:58 PM · Report this
15
@11

I don't think Sloggers are necessarily obsessed with the tunnel digger. Generally we're obsessed with typing our pointless two cents into the comment thread. But hey, maybe a post about the Mercer improvements will prove me wrong.
dnt trust me on January 15, 2014 at 5:01 PM · Report this
16
What @13 said. They clearly know what's wrong. A vertical pipe is barring the tunneling machine, but the tunneling machine itself is not vertical, so after evaluating all options, they've decided to send down humans to remove the pipe. It ain't that hard to figure out. This is a country where people get things done. When your copy machine gets jammed, do you all just start crying and go home?
kk in seattle on January 15, 2014 at 5:50 PM · Report this
17
Actually, they say they've ruled out the well casing now. So they clearly don't know what's wrong (again).
diorist on January 15, 2014 at 5:59 PM · Report this
18
@16: See how the people who know about the machine (WSDOT) don't say that that's the problem? And how they're sending down divers to diagnose the problem? Which will take weeks just to set up the ground so that the divers can start to look? That rather strongly implies this is not a case of a single pipe.
Hanoumatoi on January 15, 2014 at 6:04 PM · Report this
19
@17 I missed that report. Link?
NotSean on January 15, 2014 at 6:11 PM · Report this
20
The project is NOT at a standstill. They are still working on the north and south approaches to the tunnel, work that can continue even if the tunnel machine is not tunneling.
donarb on January 15, 2014 at 6:20 PM · Report this
21
Now Playing: "Big Dig II - Who Could Have Seen This Coming?"

Early on in the non-boring episode of clusterfuckia, it was reported that Bertha was off course. Has anything more been said about this?
sperifera on January 15, 2014 at 6:28 PM · Report this
22
Quagmire.
Jude Fawley on January 15, 2014 at 7:38 PM · Report this
23
Hole to Nowhere?
Cassette tape fan on January 15, 2014 at 8:24 PM · Report this
24
@11, fuck mercer. That money was supposed to go to a lander overpass to mitigate for stadium traffic in the maritime industrial sector in sodo. then Paul Allen convinced nickels that he deserved the cash to improve his neighborhood? Anyway shouldn't you mercer folks all be riding the slut or fixed gear bikes or something anyway?
Upchuck on January 15, 2014 at 10:40 PM · Report this
25
Sooo, following this analogy, I think it's time to say fuck doctors and pick up some organic cranberry juice which will clear up that UTI right away for a couple dollars with no side effects.

If that wasn't clear for whatever reason, organic cranberry juice is the surface/transit option.
raku on January 16, 2014 at 2:44 AM · Report this
26
Um, well, fuck their $1000 bills for 15min check-ups
Upchuck on January 16, 2014 at 6:54 AM · Report this
27
@25 Had Nickles not passive-aggressively scuttled the Monorail project, surface/transit would have been organic cranberry juice washing down a big wad of Keflex. Funny how all the 99 replacement plans didn't begin to be discussed seriously until just a few months after the demise of the monorail.
ScrawnyKayaker on January 16, 2014 at 11:50 AM · Report this
28
FTA: "They found clues, including part of an 8-inch-diameter steel pipe inside the machine's excavation chamber."

Seems to me they just(?) need to pull out the other part(s) of the half chewed pipe. It's like when your paper shredder gets jammed up. It's just paper, but it can be enough.
Westlake, son! on January 16, 2014 at 1:42 PM · Report this