- Seattle Times article on project delays and increased cost
- Project website
Rising Costs and Delays in Seattle Area Wastewater Plant and Tunnels
Project Related
Voids Open as a Result of Tunneling Under Seattle’s Beacon Hill
The Seattle Times (hat tip to ASCE SmartBrief) has reported that seven voids have been discovered above the Beacon Hill Tunnel with one opening up at the ground surface. The tunnel is being constructed by Sound Transit, the area’s transportation agency as part of a roughly $2.6 billion (yep, billion) light-rail project connecting downtown Seattle with the University of Washington and SEA-TAC airport. The voids were a result of running sand pockets in the otherwise stable clay units that were encountered by the tunnel boring machine or TBM. These voids migrated up like a chimney with one reaching the surface, almost 160-ft above the tunnel. This void was apparently 21-ft deep and opened up in a resident’s front yard and could have easily swallowed her up as she noticed it while gardening. The other voids were discovered at a depth of 20- to 65-ft below the ground surface. More after the break. (Illustration from Seattle Times)
Failures
Amsterdam Looking at Cologne Tunnel Collapse – Project Similarities?
City officials and residents in Amsterdam, Netherlands are looking at the recent Cologne tunnel collapse and wondering if the construction of their fourth metro line could have similar problems. Although the tunnels themselves have not […]
Project Related
The Most Important Fridge On Earth
Today, Tuesday, February 26, 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is scheduled to start operating on the remote island of Spitsbergen, Norway in the Svalbard Archipelago. The location is only about 1000km (625 miles) from the North Pole. The Global Seed Vault will house duplicates of seeds from known species of plants from all over the world in case a natural or other disaster destroys the original species. [Editor] Read on for more details. Photo by Mari Tefre/Svalbard Global Seed Vault [/Editor]