
Drone footage of Seattle's new 57 foot SR 99 tunnel [video] - curtis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGuMb0pXBHY
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KGIII
I just looked and can't find it. Big Bertha had stopped and it came up on
Slashdot. Having some familiarity, I was the resident expert. So, I tracked
down all the project info and was able to find the person who'd modeled the
traffic - id known him for years but he died before the project was completed.

I can't find this at Slashdot. I went on for hours and answer a ton of
questions. A couple of days later, I was still answering questions. More and
more info piled in and we were able to find online documents squirreled away
in strange places.

It was a neat write up and a bunch of people helped and asked questions. I'd
link it, but it seems to have gone missing.

Either way, it was a hell of a project. I had nothing to do with it. I do know
some of the folks involved but was retired before this and I mostly worked
East of the Mississippi.

Ah well... There is a lot that goes into infrastructure. It was awesome
getting to see it. My favorite work was field work. I'd escape the office and
do field work out of dinghy hotels. Someone has to collect the data.

So, I've seen them tunnel, blast, pave, line, and more. I've helped sign crews
and driven a grader. None of that was actually a part of my job, but I am a
five year old.

Either way, boring holes is tough and things break a lot. Equipment is often
single use or rented. It's pretty fancy stuff. It is really just a bunch of
men with heavy equipment playing in the dirt and mud - which is as awesome as
you might imagine.

I used to get a police escort as I'd drive our data car down the highway. The
reflectometer grabbed the data from the lane markings and stored them in the
computer in the trunk. I can do that for hours. But, I digress...

You can watch documentaries and see how they bore tunnels. That's like
watching a cooking show. If you get to go see it in person, that is pretty
sweet.

I wish I could find my previous writeup. Oh well...

The gist of it is, it is loud, dangerous, smelly, and appears to be pretty
hard work. I was never allowed to touch the machine, which is for the best.
It's like a monster that we've commanded to eat a hole in a mountain. That's
pretty impressive.

So, if you are thinking you're burning out, maybe you can go work for the
highway department for a few years. They will teach you to drive some pretty
awesome stuff.

~~~
pauldavis
The Tunnel Boring Machine is called Bertha, not Big Bertha.

~~~
KGIII
You'll have to take that up with the media. I can only go by what they were
calling it and what we called it during the fun phase of learning why it
broke, who was involved, and how far over budget it just might go.

I had zero to do with the project. Google tells me you're right, but Google
also tells me the media called it Big Berth. Don't blame me, blame them.

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pitaj
I'm guessing it's 57 feet in diameter, not 57 feet long. At first I was
slightly confused.

~~~
interfixus
#metoo. Length is kind of the default dimension for a tunnel. Seeing one
unspecified number, that's what we automatically assume it describes.

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rdl
Seems crazy to spend as much as they did and only get 2 lanes each way. I'd
love to see better road and rail infrastructure, but road construction, unlike
road maintenance, doesn't seem to be WSDOT's thing -- I think due to how the
plans have to be approved directly by voters. (Their pass-clearing operations
on I-90, etc. are _amazing_ , though.)

~~~
techsupporter
> I think due to how the plans have to be approved directly by voters.

Virtually no major road projects are put to the voters around here. (Highway
99 is the exception because it was so controversial.) You're thinking of
transit projects in Puget Sound which usually have to go through two or three
rounds of voting to get fully funded...

To wit, the bill that authorized Sound Transit to hold its most recent vote
included several billion in not-subject-to-a-popular-vote road projects. I
actually prefer that our representatives control the budget; that's what we
elect them to do. But this double standard of "roads are fine but
transit...pfft, well, that _must_ be ratified" is obnoxious.

~~~
melling
What about convincing voters to build low-speed maglev?

[https://youtu.be/c8SqDVUdMtY](https://youtu.be/c8SqDVUdMtY)

[https://youtu.be/uqobD2XUAJU](https://youtu.be/uqobD2XUAJU)

~~~
andrewem
Genuine question: what's the point of low-speed maglev? Seems like you could
just use a regular electric train.

~~~
melling
When have you ever seen a regular train used within a city for short distance
travel?

Do you mean light-rail or a subway? Much faster and much quieter.

~~~
stuaxo
In London. The south doesn't have much in the way of tube trains.

Also, TFL has taken over some of the regular lines and re-branded them The
Overground. These run regular trains.

I've often commuted a couple of stops from London Bridge to Charing Cross,
it's short enough that on the way back from work I would often walk or use a
Boris bike.

I preferred that route to taking the Underground as it's just nicer travelling
above ground, I can't say that it made a difference to the travel time.

These are regular trains at the end of longer routes to the South.

~~~
melling
The trip is less than 2 miles and takes 18 minutes?

[https://www.londondrum.com/transport/train-
journey.php?from=...](https://www.londondrum.com/transport/train-
journey.php?from=london-bridge&to=charing-cross)

It’s hard to compare but the maglev seems to operate much quicker:
[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-06/15/content_297514...](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-06/15/content_29751447.htm)

“The maglev line will have eight stations stretching over 10.2 kilometers and
will run at a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The whole journey will
take about 20 minutes, including the time for passengers to get on and off”

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__mp
Here’s a 360 degree video of the gotthard base tunnel:
[https://youtu.be/i0kdT5oEN2Q](https://youtu.be/i0kdT5oEN2Q) In contrast to
the Seattle project there are two tunnels running side by side. More
information:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel)

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anonymous5133
Total cost $4.25 billion for those wondering.

~~~
tomerico
$2b per mile (vs $5-10m for a regular Highway). I wish tunnels were cheaper
and faster to build.

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dredmorbius
For the project:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Way_Viaduct_replacem...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Way_Viaduct_replacement_tunnel)

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mc32
Why did they reduce the viaduct from six lanes down to four? If you're going
thru the trouble for boring a tunnel, do it proper and either keep the same
lanes or add (even a convertible lane --disabled vehicle/rush hour lane) But
reduction? Except for earthquake proofing the roadway, this does not improve
upon the traffic on SR-99.

It reminds me of the Caldecott Tunnels --they had to bore a new one to carry
all the traffic --but at least you can forgive that because traffic volume was
lower when they orig built them.

~~~
mulmen
Seattle is very limited with the amount of land available. It's not feasible
to build the 18 lane ultra freeway required to allow everyone to drive to
their destination.

For better or worse Seattle city planners have taken a car-hostile approach to
try and force people onto public transit. Unfortunately they also can't figure
out how to pay for enough buses and trains to get everyone where they are
going.

Also, my understanding is that there will be a surface street where the
current viaduct is which combined with the tunnel will allow downtown access
and increase capacity beyond what we have today.

~~~
BurningFrog
> Seattle is very limited with the amount of land available.

Tunnels don't use land.

~~~
mulmen
The ramps to get in and out of them do though. Also tunnels do occupy space.
Seattle already has a bus tunnel and a rail tunnel to avoid. On top of being
built on Jell-O.

~~~
andrewem
This is an important point, and one you can see in practice in downtown Boston
walking above the I-93 tunnel - lots of land is still used for off-ramps and
on-ramps, which tends to have high-speed traffic, whose presence is dangerous
and discourages walking, which is the lifeblood of the city.

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cft
I wonder how it was flown such a long distance without GPS? Also for consumer
DJI drones the signal range in the tunnel would not be sufficient I think.

~~~
cyrusshepard
Oh, the magic of editing.

True story: I loved the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise. I set out to learn all
his bar tricks from the film, including lighting a match with one hand. Took
me two months and many burned fingers before I mastered it. Then, I re-watched
the movie to make sure I was doing it right, only to realize it was an editing
trick and he never really did it. Oh well. I learned a skill for life.

~~~
thisacctforreal
I like Jackie Chan’s philosophy w.r.t that sort of thing, I’m sure he would
have spent the time, and that means a lot when the scene plays :)

