Bertha is fast becoming Washington state's "Bridge to Nowhere." Picture shows how far Bertha has gotten so far.

Officials with the massive tunnel project now say the tunnel boring machine, named Bertha, is far more damaged than first thought.  The machine is eating it's way through the underground, to eventually create a replacement of the aging Alaska Way Viaduct road near Seattle. The Viaduct, a major thoroughfare for Seattle area commuters,  was damaged in a 2001 earthquake, and is in need of replacement.

The machine stalled underground in December 2013, and was finally brought to the surface in March of this year.  Officials discovered considerably more damage to the machine's outer seals, braces that hold them in place, as well as the cutter driver motor and bearings.

The company who owns the machine, Seattle Tunnel Partners, is awaiting replacement parts from the manufacturer in Japan. The machine is the second-largest tunnel digging machine in the world.

The $3.1 billion dollar project is already two years behind schedule. At this point, only ten percent of the 2-mile tunnel has been drilled out. The cost of these most recent delays has not been publicized, but according to a report in the Seattle news blog Seattleish,  each day the project is delayed could cost as much as $369,000 per DAY!  That's based upon a report issued last March by the Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP).

As for Bertha becoming our "Bridge To Nowhere,"  that refers to a bridge in Alaska, the Gravina Island Bridge, that was to have replaced the ferry connecting Ketchikan to Gravina Island where the second-busiest airport in Alaska is located.  Initially begun in 2005, the project was largely abandoned in 2011, it had an original budget of $398 million dollars.  It became a prime example of government waste, and now Bertha is fast approaching that status.

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