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Archaeologists search Bertha pit for artifacts
By Joel Moreno
Published: Oct 28, 2014 at 6:30 PM PDT




SEATTLE -- A rescue operation to retrieve Bertha from beneath the earth will have to wait on archaeologists, who've just been cleared to enter an excavation pit where cultural artifacts might be buried.

Bertha got damaged and needs to be repaired, so crews were digging an access pit to reach the deep bore tunneling machine. Sea shells turned up in that pit, which halted further digging while experts determine if anything culturally significant is buried at the site.

Former Seattle city councilmember Peter Steinbrueck said this latest development could delay things "indefinitely," but believes we have gone too far down this road to back out now.

"There really is no plan B," he said.

The tunneling project is already nearly a year behind schedule, and the contractor wants taxpayers to pick up $125 million in overage charges. Who pays for this latest delay is still being worked out.

"At this point in time we would not know how that's going to shake out. We will follow the terms of the contract," said Todd Trepanier, the Highway 99 administrator for the state Department of Transportation.

DOT crews said other work is still moving forward to keep the project viable, but critics don't believe it matters if Bertha doesn't get moving soon.

"They've gone ahead with both of the portals, spending hundreds of millions on that, and they don't even know if the machine is going to make it through," said Elizabeth Campbell, a community activist and longtime tunnel opponent.

The contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners, still expects to resume drilling by March but deadlines have come and gone on this $2 billion project and very little seems certain.

"We are skeptical and have questions about their schedule and exactly how they are going to complete it, but the overall feasibility of this contract we believe is still very solid," Trepanier said.