SEATTLE — Contractors building the new Highway 99 tunnel under downtown Seattle have started digging a 120-foot pit to rescue Bertha, the stalled boring machine.
Seattle Tunnel Partners also is pumping out groundwater as it digs the 80-foot-wide pit near the Seattle waterfront.
Bertha overheated and came to a stop last December after digging about 1,000 feet or about 10 percent of the planned Highway 99 tunnel route. An investigation found that seals in the cutting head had been damaged.
A crane will lift the cutting head from the pit for repair. Tunneling could resume in March.
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