Inspections continue in Pioneer Square as cracks cause concern about Bertha
Dec 12, 2014, 6:08 PM | Updated: 9:43 pm
One day after an apparently growing crack in a Pioneer Square street exacerbated worries about the potential impact of the Seattle tunnel project, the Washington State Department of Transportation says inspections continue to determine what, if anything, is actually going on.
Crews from WSDOT and the Seattle Department of Transportation closed a portion of King Street near 1st Ave. S. Thursday after getting reports a crack in the street had been growing.
The call came on the heels of a WSDOT report issued earlier this week determining ground throughout Pioneer Square had experienced measurable settling above the area where Bertha the tunnel machine has remain stalled for the past year.
Results are still pending from an inspection by crews from Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP), the contractor on the project, using ground-penetrating radar. But WSDOT spokesperson Laura Newborn said in an email no “voids” were detected under the pavement.
The crack has been there for some time, showing up on an image from Google Maps taken back in 2011. But it has definitely grown since then.
The crack prompted Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and other city leaders to stage a hastily called press conference at the site Thursday afternoon to reassure the public.
“Currently we don’t have enough data to tell you that certain things are related to activities where the drilling machine is, or whether they are related to an old neighborhood that, in some cases, has sewer lines that go back to 1880,” Murray said. “Some property owners are reporting no damage, some are reporting damage in some cases.”
WSDOT and STP continue efforts to determine whether groundwater pumping to help excavate a 120-foot repair pit to access Bertha could be causing instability in the area.
WSDOT had surveyed 20 of approximately 30 buildings in the area where the greatest settlement has occurred as of Friday afternoon, Newborn said.
While preliminary data is still being analyzed, “no settlement of significance” has been observed since WSDOT reported the approximate one inch of settlement to officials and the public on Dec. 5.
“The viaduct remains stable and safe for traffic, with no additional settlement noted. We are conducting daily inspections,” Newborn said.
SDOT reports crews repaired the crack that caused all the commotion Friday and the street was reopened.
