Friday, February 13, 2015

A Trafficker's Dream Machine!: Seattle to “rescue” Spanish Tunneling Machine Stuck Underground

2/13/2015

Just think of all the illegals, drugs and terrorists they could smuggle across borders!

SEATTLE – U.S. engineers have completed the first steps in the process of the rescue and repair of the world’s largest tunneling machine “Bertha,” designed by the Spanish company Dragados and which has been stuck underground since 2013.

The transport department of Washington state on Tuesday reported that the scaffold that will help in pulling the top section of the machine back to the surface is now complete.

The scaffold was built at the bottom of a 120-foot-deep hole specifically dug for the extraction of the machine.

Bertha was designed to excavate a tunnel to replace an old viaduct from where the state’s main north-south corridor passes and was severely damaged by a 2001 earthquake.

The tunneling machine is considered to be the largest of its kind with a diameter of 57 feet equivalent to a six floor building and weighs a total of 7,000 tons with a length of 367 feet.

Berta (Spanish spelling) arrived in Seattle in 2013 but overheated and became stuck while working at a depth of 120 feet.

To repair the damaged top part of the machine, a huge hole has been dug at a distance of 20 feet from its location with Berta expected to drill the remaining distance.

The top of the machine will then be shifted to the surface with the help of a crane where it is to be repaired.

Once repaired, Berta will continue to drill the 2-mile-long tunnel to be ready for its inauguration in 2017.

Budgeted at $2 billion, the project was assigned to Seattle Tunneling Partners, a consortium of Dragados’ U.S. subsidiary, Dragados USA and the Tutor Perini Corporation.


source

No comments: