Cal is a big state per capita our elected officials fuk us in the ass harder and deeper with no lube. Book it!

Looking at this deal, I see a large claim for liquidated damages from the State to the Contractor. This is going to get nasty.

Contradict my own thread here... Bertha is drilling the taxpayer just fine.

It'll be a while before she gets going again. XX billion for a project that provides less capacity.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/02/11/3040827/seattles-boring-machine-bertha.html

And then there's the 14' wide pedestrian path on the new 520. Their priorities are mind boggling.

Will the new SR 520 bridge have a bicycle and pedestrian path?
Yes. The new floating bridge will include a separated 14-foot wide bicycle and pedestrian path along the north side, connecting non-motorized travelers to and from Seattle and the Eastside. The path on the new bridge will include five belvederes to provide scenic viewpoints and resting areas for bikers, joggers and walkers. Bicyclists and pedestrians will not pay a toll to cross the bridge.

Concur!!

From what little light has been shed on some of these significant debacles it seems that best engineering practices have been sacrificed to political expediency and direction. Gregoire served out her second term and elected not to run again (probably a good decision; a resounding defeat would have damaged her political standings and potential for a Federal appointment). Her Transportation Director ramained in her position until the new Governor canned her.

Bottom line is that there has been NO accountability and that is why any transportation bill is facing stiff challenges. No accountability equals no credibility equals no public support.

So Bertha got plugged by the very soil it is supposed to drill through?

I heard somewhere (2nd hand geek-out conversation) that the boring machine was sized by DOT, and an Equipment Specification was put out to the bidding world (i.e. diameter, horsepower, etc). No doubt there is risk in writing a performance specification (changing conditions), but it lets the experts, the actual people who own/build this kind of gear decide if they have the right stuff to do the job.

This machine is repeatedly getting stuck in material it is supposed to blow through. It seems like it is not getting the mechanical advantage it was supposed to, or the shape of the cutting head does not work for the soil it is being used in. Probably a combination of the cutter head and crowd.

No one would be surprised if WADOT made an engineering blunder in the bid document. Not after these last couple of years. It usually comes down to something very simple. Like spending two years scheming up the machine specs instead of saying: we need a hole this big to go from here to there.

I don't know I just heard that a while back, and now that it is plugged again it starts to look more plausible.

I've been wondering what kind of a machine it will take to to drill past/through Bertha.

I have the answer.

WS,DOT I will respond to pm's.

I demand $250,000.00 non refundable cash deposit, towards a $10,000,000.09 total project cost, plus additional costs. I will not accept a general bond debenture. If you can not accept my terms do not expect me to accommodate you, and your brethren's bills towards such a stupid and foolhardily scheme.

Not a word from the governor or mayor. Let's just ban some more plastic bags.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/04/bertha-wont-resume-tunneling-for-nearly-a-year/

That's just awesome. More government please. These pikers would be asking for spare change if they had to work in the private sector. Proper private sector planning is always set around the worst case scenario. If you build a one-of-a-kind machine, you build 3 with spare parts for the lot. Public Sector mouth and money = bounced check every time. Idiots.

Bertha’s stall has politicians stuck for answers

Knee-deep in political muck as Seattle’s highway-tunnel-drilling machine remains underground awaiting repairs, leaders are choosing their words carefully, some standing firm, others avoiding questions or pondering possibilities for a Plan B.



By Daniel Beekman and Joseph O’Sullivan. Mayor Ed Murray reluctant to talk about details.

Gov. Jay Inslee: Tunnel still “best viable option.”

Highway 99 tunnel work moved forward last year, but the crucial question remains whether
Enlarge this photo

Like the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, which ground to a halt under downtown Seattle more than a year ago, the region’s elected officials are stuck.

Most of them backed the plan for the multibillion-dollar Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, and all of them know that every day the fragile viaduct remains standing is another that an earthquake could knock it down — with deadly results.

Many of them will campaign for re-election before the project is done; the best-case scenario for completion is August 2017, a year and a half behind schedule.

There is no cheap and easy alternative to the state-run tunnel project and also no guarantee that the $80 million machine nicknamed Bertha will start moving again.

The project will remain in limbo until crews digging a repair-access pit reach the machine, and its boondoggle potential has recently attracted national media attention.

Knee-deep in political muck, some local leaders are looking for a way out, others are standing firm, and still others are ducking questions about the problem.

Gov. Jay Inslee and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray are walking a fine line between supporting an important undertaking and distancing themselves from blame in case it implodes. Murray, in particular, has been reluctant to discuss the future of the project in detail.

“I’m not sure anyone wants to talk about this, because it’s a nightmare. There’s no happy ending,” Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata said.

Talk of a Plan B

Licata voted to go forward with agreements for a deep-bore tunnel in 2011 after previously favoring a new viaduct. Now he’s worried.

Whether or not Bertha resumes her work, the solution to Seattle’s waterfront transportation quagmire will likely generate significant cost overruns, he said.

Rather than waiting to see whether the machine can be rescued and repaired, Murray, Inslee and select city and state lawmakers should begin meeting to shore up the current project and develop a robust Plan B, Licata said.

“They need to outline the options,” he said, suggesting that Inslee lead the way. “What are the costs? How valid is the information we have right now? What’s going on? They should be able to explain to the public what the best Plan B is.”

Inslee and Murray are choosing their words carefully.

“People should be prepared for additional challenges, but we have looked at other alternatives and this remains the best viable option,” the governor said in a statement.

He and everyone else will know more after the project’s contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners, completes the repair-access pit.

“New information could change plans on any project,” Inslee admitted. “But it doesn’t change the need to make sure we build a safe new route through Seattle or our intention to keep the contractor accountable for delivering on their contract.”

Murray held an emergency news conference last month after sinking soil and a hole in the pavement near Bertha’s repair-access pit in Pioneer Square caused concern.

But his focus was on protecting utilities and nearby buildings — issues for which the city is directly responsible — not on the future of the actual tunnel project. The mayor declined a request by The Seattle Times for an interview about the tunnel project.

He did discuss the project briefly during year-end segments on KING-TV and KIRO-TV, describing the deep-bore tunnel as “still the best option.”

“We want to keep our industrial sector. To make that work, you need to be able to move freight and people,” the mayor told KING.

But he also pointed a finger at the state and the project’s contractor.

“What concerns me is: Did the state buy the right technology? Was this the best method to build a tunnel?” Murray said. “I’m very concerned how this is playing out. Perhaps the choices of how we went about this may have been the wrong choices.”

The mayor argued that not completing Bertha’s tunnel could make the construction of a new downtown transit tunnel for a Ballard-West Seattle light-rail line a harder sell.

But on KIRO, he appeared to open the door — at least a crack — to a Plan B.

“Whether it’s a tunnel, or whether it’s some other type of tunnel or some other type of arrangement that we come up with for the central waterfront, the important thing is we find a way to make this corridor work,” Murray said.

When to cut losses?

There are two Plan B possibilities, Licata said: A highway that would play havoc with the city’s plans for a new waterfront park, or a surface street with a huge investment in transit. Both possibilities could cost billions of dollars more than currently allocated, he said.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) already has spent more than $1 billion toward its $1.44 billion contract with Seattle Tunnel Partners. Bertha has traveled only 1,025 feet along its 9,270-foot route.

When asked at what point WSDOT should scrap the tunnel project, Licata replied, “It might be now.”

Councilmember Mike O’Brien, though he was the only member to vote against the project in 2011, answered, “I don’t have enough information to answer that.”

O’Brien has questioned WSDOT several times about the tipping point for the viaduct becoming too dangerous, but has yet to receive a satisfying explanation, he said.

The viaduct is safe to drive on today, Inslee said in his statement. But it is rated a 9 in structural integrity on a scale of 1 to 100 and would have collapsed had the Nisqually earthquake of 2001 lasted just 10 more seconds, he noted.

That said, “Stopping this project now won’t make the viaduct any safer, or make our commutes any faster,” Inslee added.

Before proponents of the tunnel won out, O’Brien lobbied for a surface street with additional transit, and he believes he may get his way in the end.

“If we get to a point where this project drags on and the viaduct becomes too risky, then we may get to try that plan, at least on a temporary basis,” he said.

At a minimum, leaders should keep their minds open, said O’Brien.

“This doesn’t have to be, ‘I will do everything to keep Bertha alive’ or “It’s time to kill Bertha.’ It can be, ‘I’m going to share information and make hard decisions,’ ” he said.

Supporters stand firm

Council President Tim Burgess is among those urging the state to stay the course.

“We knew this would be complicated,” he said. “But this project is essential to our transportation needs. If we rethink it every time there’s a hiccup, we’ll be in far worse trouble than if we just move ahead wisely and prudently and finish the project.”

Councilmember Jean Godden, a longtime tunnel supporter like Burgess, agreed.

“We have to think positively,” Godden said. “I don’t know that everything will be fine, but I’m hoping that everything will be fine.”

Naysayers need to take a deep, calming breath, she said. Boston’s Big Dig project survived problems much worse than what Bertha has encountered thus far, and “the people of Boston would not for a minute give back their tunnel,” she said.

There is a default Plan B for replacing the viaduct, Burgess said: a surface-street proposal from 2005, tweaked to account for updated traffic patterns. But that plan is simply not doable, said Burgess. “We’ve gone way too far in the other direction,” he said.

Burgess, Godden and Licata each lobbied for the tunnel and pushed legislation through the council to facilitate it. But they are now emphasizing that the state — not the city — is ultimately responsible for the project and its complications.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, the council’s Transportation Committee chair, could not be reached for comment.

Fallout in Olympia?

State lawmakers are certainly watching the project.

The tunnel kerfuffle will affect how voters view infrastructure spending and may prove a drag on efforts to pass a transportation package in Olympia this year, said Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who chairs the House Transportation Committee.

Nonetheless, Clibborn is generally supportive of the tunnel, as is Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee. “Going into a project of this size and complexity, you knew there would be setbacks,” Clibborn said.

The question of cost overruns is less clear.

When the Legislature approved the tunnel project in 2009, lawmakers included a proviso requiring city taxpayers to cover any costs above the state’s budget.

But Clibborn maintains that the proviso is unenforceable because the tunnel is a state project, and King agrees the proviso may not “hold water in court.”

“There’s no legal way for (WSDOT) or the state to come down to a jurisdiction and have them be held responsible for the contract,” Clibborn said.

The governor shares that opinion. In 2010, then-state Attorney General Rob McKenna advised then-Gov. Chris Gregoire that further legislation would be required to make the proviso operative, Inslee said.

Inslee and Murray, who as a state senator sponsored the tunnel legislation and voted for it despite concerns about the proviso, are mostly on the same page.

Both leaders are standing by the project while insisting that Seattle Tunnel Partners is responsible for overruns because it has a “design-build” contract with the state.

“We have seen no evidence that costs related to the machine repairs will be borne by the state or taxpayers,” Inslee said.

Time will tell whether the governor is correct. The companies that make up Seattle Tunnel Partners have years of experience litigating cost questions, and as of last spring they already had filed claims with the state for an additional $190 million.

Evaluating Bertha’s muck, Inslee addressed the project’s detractors this way: “A decision was made. Right now we need a safe new arterial through Seattle more than we need a historical debate.”

Do you rest easy with Jay Inslee at the helm?

What a schmuck!

Fixed it

“We knew this would be complicated,” he said. “But this project is essential to our transportation needs. If we rethink it every time there’s a hiccup, we’ll be in far worse trouble than if we just move ahead wisely and prudently and finish the project.”

A "hiccup"..... She's stuck, hasn't moved in a year and a half, STP is suing the state for $190 mil, the pit hasn't been dug, etc.

If improving traffic congestion was the goal, the first step in reducing it wouldn't have been light rail from almost downtown to almost the airport. Add to that, there is no dedicated parking along that entire line even if it was a corridor that moved people from point A to their workplace.

What a f'n joke. How about the people sitting in their cars from Oly to Marysville? Billions on light rail to the airport and now we need to find funding to actually improve congestion.

Tolling 405 is right around the corner. And, I'm sure that money will be used to improve congestion.....

I wondered why it couldn't be dug by hand? Whatever happened to backhoes and shovels? Billion dollar boring machines don't seem to be the answer and standard excavating could also put a dent in unemployment.


The suggestion is probably absurd given that it is way too easy and inexpensive.

Tolling money will be used to improve congestion?






If improving congestion is actually a serious consideration, they should teardown the POS Convention Center where the northbound I5 lanes merge to two lanes at Seneca St.

Light rail definitely needs to be expanded north and east if it is to do much good for traffic congestion.

That being said...there is indeed dedicated parking for it. In Tukwila there is a lot with something like 700 parking spots, and they are building another lot south of the airport nearer to Des Moines that will have something like 1200 spots.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. Light rail doesn't run from "almost downtown" to "almost to the airport"...it runs from the airport to right downtown at Westlake Center, and soon will run to well south of the airport, it's being built now.

My comments definitely show the bias I have against this project. Misleading, sure... But, the point is the same.

Almost no parking along the line, you must live nearby and walk or ride your bicycle to it. The line serves almost no purpose whatsoever in removing congestion on the freeways.

We don't have an unlimited supply of money to try and fix our congestion and this is the way it's dealt with.

Quadrupling the amount of park and rides along I-5 and quadrupling the amount of buses serving those PnR's would have solved this problem at a fraction of the price. Only problem is that it doesn't get governments hands deep enough into our pockets and the monument that would be left behind couldn't be named after some guy who spearheaded a project like the lightly used link light rail system.

Taxpayers paying for a system that a few out of towners ride isn't an answer.

When I see standing room only on one of these trains rather than 1-3 people riding it, I'd change my tune. That's the norm on all of our buses along the main routes.