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Confusion forces Sound Transit to re-think names of tunneling machines
It looks like Bertha’s reputation is rubbing off on her fellow Seattle boring machines, and they don’t like it.
Sound Transit’s two boring machines, nicknamed Brenda and Pamela, are going to be named tunnel-boring machine 1 and tunnel-boring machine 2, The Seattle Times reports.
Related: Seattle safe, ‘assuming contractor abides by its commitment’
The reason, according to the Times, is because Sound Transit is worried about people mixing up the machines responsible for drilling light rail tunnels with the much larger machine that, up until recently, has been plagued with problems in downtown Seattle. Sound Transit spokesperson Kimberly Reason told the Times there has been “a lot of confusion” between the machines.
And Sound Transit doesn’t necessarily want that confusion. Bertha, part of a project that is more than two years behind schedule, has had to be rescued, and reportedly caused two sinkholes since it began digging. One of those holes was enough for Gov. Jay Inslee to call for all work related to the machine to be stopped while the contractor checked its safety protocols.
Though Sound Transit’s machines haven’t been completely free of problems – Pamela stopped working for six weeks before resuming, for example – the link light rail project to Northgate is reportedly on schedule.
Take a look at Brenda up close and personal: She chewed through soil & concrete to Roosevelt Station and she’s got an appetite for more. Brenda is mining one of the tunnels for Link light rail service to Northgate which opens for service in 2021.
Posted by Sound Transit on Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Sound Transit boring machine Brenda breaks through a wall in the Roosevelt neighborhood in 2015.
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