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Are_grits_groceries

(17,111 posts)
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 06:18 AM Dec 2013

Under Seattle, a Big Object Blocks Bertha(biggest tunnel-boring machine). What Is It?

SEATTLE — A secret subterranean heart, tinged with mystery and myth, beats beneath the streets in many of the world’s great cities. Tourists seek out the catacombs of Rome, the sewers of Paris and the subway tunnels of New York. Some people believe a den of interstellar aliens lurks beneath Denver International Airport.

The first rings of the highway tunnel


Bertha in May, before it was lowered underground to start digging.

Now Seattle, at least for now, has joined that exclusive club.

Something unknown, engineers say — and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown — has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet, a high-tech, largely automated wonder called Bertha. At five stories high with a crew of 20, the cigar-shaped behemoth was grinding away underground on a two-mile-long, $3.1 billion highway tunnel under the city’s waterfront on Dec. 6 when it encountered something in its path that managers still simply refer to as “the object.”

The object’s composition and provenance remain unknown almost two weeks after first contact because in a state-of-the-art tunneling machine, as it turns out, you can’t exactly poke your head out the window and look.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/us/under-seattle-a-big-object-blocks-bertha-what-is-it.html

I like the den of aliens idea.

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Under Seattle, a Big Object Blocks Bertha(biggest tunnel-boring machine). What Is It? (Original Post) Are_grits_groceries Dec 2013 OP
can’t exactly poke your head out the window and look.... dipsydoodle Dec 2013 #1
This is one of the burial tombs of Big Foot. pnwmom Dec 2013 #2
has anyone seen Chris Christie lately? large, has a history of blocking traffic patterns . . . DrDan Dec 2013 #3
BOOM CFLDem Dec 2013 #8
Professor Bernard Quatermass is being sent in Ichingcarpenter Dec 2013 #4
Quatermass and the Pit CBGLuthier Dec 2013 #10
We already have the Seattle Underground... countryjake Dec 2013 #5
The object? meegbear Dec 2013 #6
I wonder how it makes turns. Katashi_itto Dec 2013 #7
Gradually dipsydoodle Dec 2013 #11
Lol!! Katashi_itto Dec 2013 #12
I said that because dipsydoodle Dec 2013 #14
:) Katashi_itto Dec 2013 #15
That's an exciting boring story jberryhill Dec 2013 #9
lol, nice Vattel Dec 2013 #16
That's where the NSA hid Obama's Kenyan birth certificate! FSogol Dec 2013 #13
Either Sarah Palin's ego or Rush Limbaugh's ass. 11 Bravo Dec 2013 #17
Probably granite. . eom B Calm Dec 2013 #18

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
1. can’t exactly poke your head out the window and look....
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 06:43 AM
Dec 2013

I guess they'll put in a vertical shaft to see wassup.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
4. Professor Bernard Quatermass is being sent in
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 07:25 AM
Dec 2013

Where he will ultimately find an object that was Five Million Years to Earth

countryjake

(8,554 posts)
5. We already have the Seattle Underground...
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 07:28 AM
Dec 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground


I'm not even sure if it's still accessible or not, but it was pretty neat down there when I first moved West.
And spooky.

Here's a silly video tour that explains its existence, just for the halibut:

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
14. I said that because
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 10:01 AM
Dec 2013

the chances that the Channel Tunnel is straight as dye from start to finish is nil.

A borer was parked up at the side of the road near Folkestone in Kent at the UK end of the tunnel for ages - may even still be there. Amazing looking piece of kit.

 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
9. That's an exciting boring story
Fri Dec 20, 2013, 08:49 AM
Dec 2013

Figure, if you operated the world's largest boring machine, then you'd probably make up stuff to make your boring job seem more interesting.

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