How do you dig a FIVE STORY hole underground in a soggy land fill area without some associated settling of nearby structures - unless they're anchored to bedrock?

Don't wanna ride on Pancake Highway 99!

"And hey, if WSDOT is committed to burying bad news on Fridays, we can stay committed to making noise about it on the following Mondays."

Yeah, please make absolutely sure you have no weekend content more informative than a Sunday Comic and that vapid Rants by Francine column.

@1 It's a twelve story hole.

IIRC they confirmed the main center bearing seal is damaged at minimum (if not the bearing already too), which is going to mean the bearing and shaft themselves are going to sustain some damage during this operation no matter what (bad bearing seal = shit gonna get in the bearing even if it's in serviceable shape now). Even if they let it cool off there's still a chance of the main shaft seizing up from debris scoring and wedging in the bearing surfaces. If it makes it out, I'll bet it gets even more fucked up just from the concrete chunks n dust making it into the bearing. That stuff is way nastier for bearing surfaces than the saturated soil down there.

I'm sure they're aware of this, but I don't know how you'd mitigate it. I doubt the bearing seal is accessible right now unless there is access for a very small person through the cutterhead. They're (WSDOT) probably betting on putting the bill for a new center bearing and whatever length of shaft is fucked too on Hitachi or the contractor. The document detailing the 8 inch pipe mentions that its location was documented in contract documents.

FUCK GUYS EVERYONE'S A NUG AWAY FROM BEING A JOURNALIST, WEE

The viaduct was settling long before the tunnel project. But let's not let facts get in the way of The Stranger's visceral hate of the Tunnel Project. The Stranger, it seems is perfectly happy with the very real possibility of the viaduct folding like dominos during the next earthquake... The viaduct's time has long past. Simply "retrofitting" it is not a valid solution.

We learned today that "(Bents are viaduct support structures along the length of the route)", so now we're all a nug away from being a civil engineer! Wonder when I can do my license exam.

I liked the look of the old comment section better. Oh well...

Looking forward to seeing that lovely piece of sky!
@BerthaDeBlues

I can't wait until the tunnel-boring machine (I refuse to cutify it with a human name) gets stuck further along in it's journey, underneath a building, and they have to come in at it from the side, like on 4th Avenue, or something.

#5 - CHZA:
The manufacturer owns the machine until it has gone 1300 feet, which it has not, so all these repairs SHOULD go to the manufacturer, but I never see that factoid mentioned any where in these stories, which makes we wonder if they are planning on making Seattle taxpayers pay for a machine we don't even own yet.

Also, I would like to think there is someone somewhere (what a fool I am!) looking out for the taxpayers' interest, and refusing to accept the machine until it has been demonstrated that it has been not only repaired satisfactorily, but also that it has been modified to be more reliable and resilient for the rest of the tunnel.

bullets that don't spin through rifling, won't hit target you fucking moron