Seattle’s Big Bertha needed a little help to move on Sept. 23, but the massive tunnel machine working the Highway 99 job crept along 3 ft. It was the first advancement in weeks, and came after muck was removed from foam injector nozzles, some minor tweaks were made and a protest was put on pause.
“At this point, we’ve been pleased with the builders’ attention to getting Bertha moving again and starting tunneling,” said Todd Trepanier, who works for the Washington State Department of Transportation and is the program administrator for the Highway 99 project.