Comments

1
Can he also order Chris Gregoire to stand underneath the surface with an umbrella to guard the equipment against collapse?
2
Just keep drilling! They already filled the hole with 250 cubic yards of concrete. No hole, no problem.
3
Note the repeated use of the words, "request", "ask". STP should just tell the State that they are contracted to do the work, are responsible for any damage caused by their negligence, and are proceeding ahead.
4
@1: I'm sure the former governor regret her decisions and feels quite badly over it. The poor dear.
5
Ed Murray, Mayor Sinkhole.
7
@5 for the Sunk Cost Mayoral Fallacy title of the day win!
6
Dominic Holden, Seattle misses you more than ever.
8
And your wombats
9
http://www.viafuct.com/
10
My eyes are totally not nervously darting side to side right now. Totally not.
12
its not exactly a mystery how or why a sinkhole opened up in Bertha's wake. the ground subsided.

I'm amazed there aren't more of these - they're digging under former tideflats, after all. the concrete is actually a good temporary fix - heavier than the soil below, it will compact and plug it up so water doesn't get in.

bertha is just too close to the surface to avoid this issue - but she won't be staying that close. this is the most difficult part of the dig.
13
@11: you know jack about geotechnical engineering. or political corruption.
14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfwnkEb…

pay attention to the "depth to crown" distances. about 35' now, but by the time it gets to pike st., it's 190'.
15
@14. And its 190' of soil, not fill that is saturated with water every time the tide comes in.
16
@15: look, we agree on something! bipartisanship!
17
One can almost imagine what they're not publicly telling us.
18
"Root cause analysis". What a bunch of tripe. I guess Inslee really is running scared. I'm no Bryant fan, so I suppose I hope it works for him, but fuck me this is a waste. The sinkhole doesn't mean that the viaduct is next and isn't even particularly surprising. @17 Go ahead, work yourself into a froth. Conspiracy! Profiteers! Incompetents! Cheaters! OMG!
19
Georgeingeorgetown and Max, you know of what you speak: I used to work for an absolutely ridiculous ".com" down in Pioneer Square. For some reason it didn't die the death it so richly deserved during the bubble, but we did have to downsize and move to the basement, where there was a sump pump that ran 24/7 to keep us from being flooded out every time the tide came in. We later moved to the Westin Building, which is one of the few areas of downtown that is not built on garbage and dead bodies, and which is where Bertha will end up eventually (at this rate, at about the time I retire)

The Pioneer Square area is a mess. Always has been.
20
Barge overloading is their excuse to gain time to reassess this predicted fatal flaw, ie, the extreme danger of "carvernous collapsable voids" developing along tunnel length, below sea level as far north as Denny. The unbalanced barge excuse is a ruse and lie among many, dating back to early AWV replacement studies pre/post 2007 referendum.

SEATTLE will suffer "economic insecurity" as once suitably sound old and new buildings begin to show cracks from Old Town to entire tunnel length. Surveys of building damage - growing hairline cracks, unusual settlement - will begin to terrify residents within the decade. An exodus will occur, thus the prospect of economic harm 'preceeding' catastrophic failure. Also predicted: severe seawall damages, inevitably frequent and ultimately permanent tunnel closure.

Billy Bryant is NOT Seattle NOR the State's friend. His boys undermined the bi-state CRC, 'vindictively' denying Oregon its long overdue rebuild Marine Drive at I-5, Balkanizing IMO the fossil fuel export game; divvying up which port gets what. Why ship Propane the length of Washington? The oval track rail terminal
on West Hayden Island isn't completely absurd?
The TPP gives these port creeps, way too much power.
Beneath my scathing criticism is honest concern.
Beneath Seattle is a mass murderer.
21
Paananen speaking on this new issue with Bertha, this [terrifying] sinkhole. "The same conditions exist today that did four years ago. There was no perfect decision, but this was the best that fit all the goals we wanted to achieve. I'm not second guessing it." "For us to stop it, would put a lot of stress on our liability," it's also said.
Plan B for Bertha is viable a c t u a l l y.

22
I CANT BELIEVE all the completely naIve comments in The Stranger, of all places!
we HAD a vote and a surface option WON. THEN, they immediately started discrediting skeptics, trashing the vote (is this America?), covering up all the risks. I think it wad like the Iraq invasion. Had such a huge hard'on for a tunnel that NO pesky little ones are going to blueball them. Isnt it true that NO respected tunneling experts would have anything to do with this project? Even if it is completed, whose going to pay over $5 for 1-way??? traffic will come to a halt because everyone will be trying to find alternate routes. Experts say there will be constant leaking flooding, and if people DO use the tunnel what happens next? I'll bet that giant slab of concrete will sink in the wet muddy sand and......oh, well.
Who cares? we're gonna have a cool tunnel so lets just FUCK THE RISK.

Please wait...

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