A federal judge in Seattle dismissed a lawsuit Friday aimed at stopping construction of a tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Judge John Coughenour said the people who brought the suit in September hadn’t established their standing. In his ruling he said they hadn’t specified how they’d be damaged by the lack of a full environmental-impact statement on all of the viaduct construction projects. [Source: SeattlePI via AGC SmartBrief]
Failures
Cologne Tunnel Contractor’s and Engineers’ Offices Raided
According to a Reuters article, Cologne State Prosecutors raided the offices of various contractors, engineers, and even the Cologne Public Transport company to collect evidence in an investigation into the cause of the collapse of […]
Project Related
Feb. 7 Bertha update: Two factors contributed to tunnel stoppage
WSDOT released an update on February 7 with some conclusions regarding the blockage that has stopped the Alaska Way Viaduct Tunnel Boring Machine, Bertha’s progress since December 6. Now they don’t think it was necessarily the well casing after all.
They cite two factors that contributed to the blockage. First, the cutterhead was clogged with material. You can see an cool short video of a worker unclogging the cutterhead. Not terribly dramatic, but still cool. The second factor was increased temperatures inside the equipment. STP discovered damage to a seal that protects the machine’s main bearing. They are still determining how the repairs will be done.
If you want to follow the chronology of this issue, read below for summaries and links to previous updates from WSDOT. And Check out the videos too! [Source: WSDOT]
Project Related
London’s Crossrail Cores Going to Salt Mine
London’t mega-project known as Crossrail that involves the construction of 118 km (73 mi) of new rail line with 42 km (26 mi) of new tunnels. The geotechnical investigation for Crossrail included rock coring, and […]