Roger Giangrande
Professor Steve Sciara
January 30, 2016
Big Bertha: The Contingency killer?
Replacing the two their road right at the water, Seattle is building a 2 mile tunnel underneath the busy streets. Big Bertha is named after Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected as Seattle's first female mayor in the 1920s. Bertha is the worlds largest boring machine that stands 5 stories tall and 326 miles long only moving 35 feet per day weighing it at an incredible 6,700 tons. Seems like this machine isn't practical, especially when it costs $80 million dollars, but don't let her size and speed fool you. Bertha can multi-task by creating the concrete walls as she goes leaving no traces of the past behind. As per (CBS NEWS 2013)the Washington State Department of Transportation’s KaDeena Yerkan“The $3 billion tunnel is scheduled to carry traffic by the end of 2015”.
Since 2013 …show more content…
Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane). “We’re literally going to be wasting billions of dollars on what I think is a vanity project to benefit very few people in downtown Seattle.”(C.R Douglas) Even though the project is far from being finished going on what is close to two years of delays and hundreds of millions in extra costs, they have to keep going. To stop a project so massive and showing nothing in return would be a financial heart attack. As is goes and we look at what we thought to be Challenging , it was. They said it's going to be difficult, and it surely wasn't going to be perfect, but to transform the face of Seattle in such a highly technical way is amazing. Fortunately for them they have the resources and backing to finish, but after yet another recent set back as per the Seattle times, Bertha wont be up and running due to a main drive bearing needing to be replaced. The goal yet again will be delayed until the end of march.(Mike
Professor Steve Sciara
January 30, 2016
Big Bertha: The Contingency killer?
Replacing the two their road right at the water, Seattle is building a 2 mile tunnel underneath the busy streets. Big Bertha is named after Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected as Seattle's first female mayor in the 1920s. Bertha is the worlds largest boring machine that stands 5 stories tall and 326 miles long only moving 35 feet per day weighing it at an incredible 6,700 tons. Seems like this machine isn't practical, especially when it costs $80 million dollars, but don't let her size and speed fool you. Bertha can multi-task by creating the concrete walls as she goes leaving no traces of the past behind. As per (CBS NEWS 2013)the Washington State Department of Transportation’s KaDeena Yerkan“The $3 billion tunnel is scheduled to carry traffic by the end of 2015”.
Since 2013 …show more content…
Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane). “We’re literally going to be wasting billions of dollars on what I think is a vanity project to benefit very few people in downtown Seattle.”(C.R Douglas) Even though the project is far from being finished going on what is close to two years of delays and hundreds of millions in extra costs, they have to keep going. To stop a project so massive and showing nothing in return would be a financial heart attack. As is goes and we look at what we thought to be Challenging , it was. They said it's going to be difficult, and it surely wasn't going to be perfect, but to transform the face of Seattle in such a highly technical way is amazing. Fortunately for them they have the resources and backing to finish, but after yet another recent set back as per the Seattle times, Bertha wont be up and running due to a main drive bearing needing to be replaced. The goal yet again will be delayed until the end of march.(Mike