Bertha Is Done: What's Next For The New SR 99 Tunnel

SEATTLE, WA - After four years of off-and-on drilling, Bertha, the gigantic tunnel boring machine, emerged from underneath Seattle on Tuesday to great fanfare. The emergence of Bertha means that tunnel mining underneath Seattle is done - that is, the space is there, but there are still a lot of things that have to happen before the new SR 99 can open to the public. Here are the next steps for the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project:

• Tuesday's event signaled just the beginning of Bertha's emergence. It will still be another four or so months before the entire drilling machine emerges from the north entrance near the Seattle Center. Crews will disassemble it in the pit piece by piece.
  
• The roadway through the tunnel still has to be built. Eventually, there will be four lanes in the tunnel - two going north, two heading south. As of March 31, the southbound roadway is about halfway through the tunnel, right around Pine Street.
  
• The entire Alaskan Way Viaduct has to be removed. According to WSDOT, this will happen in 2019. Around the same time, the state will de-commission the Battery Street Tunnel.
  
• A new Alaskan Way will be built along Seattle's waterfront, which will take until 2023. This has been a controversial piece of the project because plans show a roadway 102 feet wide with up to nine lanes. But last month, a lawsuit settlement ruled that the road will be reduced by about 30 feet once light rail to West Seattle opens (in 2033).
  
• Last but not least, tolling rates for the tunnel have to be set.

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Image via WSDOT