Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project is a political lightning rod, but this amazing simulation video released by WSDOT underscores what COULD happen if a significant earthquake struck the Seattle Downtown Waterfront area.
Project Related
Plan for Bertha Repair Submitted, Archaeological Surveys Underway
Seattle Tunnel Partners and WSDOT are moving forward with the plans to excavate a 120 foot deep shaft to repair the Bertha Tunnel Boring Machine. Unfortunately, there are archaeological issues since the project team did […]
Press Releases
Italian Court Action Likely to Harm Efforts to Mitigate Earthquake Losses
On 22 October, 2012, an Italian court convicted six internationally respected scientists of manslaughter. The scientists Enzo Boschi, Giulio Selvaggi, Franco Barberi, Claudio Eva, Mauro Dolce, and Gian Michele Calvi have been sentenced to prison terms, barred from public office, and ordered to pay court costs and damages.
Their offense could have been avoided by precisely predicting the timing and nature of the tragic 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila. However, such precise, short-term earthquake prediction of the type evidently sought by L’Aquila is currently impossible. Because of the ungainly complexity of earthquake systems, knowledge of physical details is incomplete; the diverse expressions of earthquake processes deliver contradictory messages; and measurements of earthquake phenomena can be inaccurate. Glaringly, the indictment accused the scientists of having provided “incomplete”, “contradictory”, and “inaccurate” information.
[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from the GSA. [/Editor]
Project Related
Video: WSDOT Rock Blasting on I-90 Snoqualmie Pass
This is a great video montage of rock blasting for Washington State DOT’s I-90 Snoqualmie Pass project. It’s not clear from the description if this blasting actually occurred on this project or its from other […]