Commissioning of the SR-99 (Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement) tunneling machine continues as Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) prepares to resume mining. STP began testing machine components earlier this month as crews continued welding pieces and reconnecting hoses and cables. Last week, STP began rotating the machine’s cutterhead a few degrees at a time, stopping periodically to take measurements before completing a full rotation.
Tuesday, November 24 marked the first sustained rotation of the cutterhead since the machine broke through the southern wall (links to YouTube) of the access pit on February 19. STP indicated they will rotate the cutterhead in both directions for about one hour at a time.
During the next phase of commissioning, STP will backfill the access pit with sand and gravel to prepare the machine for mining. STP’s most recent schedule shows that the machine will be ready to resume mining on December 23.
Previous news coverage of the project by Tunnelling Journal:
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