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So it's not exactly automotive, but it is a fascinating vehicle - and you'll excuse us if we don't make any puns about how boring it actually is. A portion of Seattle's
Alaskan Way Viaduct is being
replaced by a deep tunnel, and the machine purpose-built for the job is the world's largest tunnel boring machine (TBM), christened "Bertha." Built by Hitachi Zosen, the 300-foot-long doomsday machine is excavating a 57.5-foot-wide hole for a two-level highway with two lanes in each direction.
Bertha has
only recently arrived at the Port of Seattle and is still waiting to get off the cargo ship she rode in on. The video
below lays out in detail how she'll crawl her way from one end of the tunnel to the other, 6.5 feet at a time. Warning, it's dry, but we think it's interesting. Beneath that is a time-lapse video of Bertha's 6,100 tons being loaded up in 40 pieces for shipping from Japan to Seattle which makes us think of
Fraggle Rock and dozers, but perhaps that's just us...
Continue reading This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle
This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle originally appeared on
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Video: This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle
