SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

State: We’ll fill the Bertha hole with your tax dollars

Feb 10, 2014, 11:47 PM | Updated: Feb 11, 2014, 7:03 am

I read this D-mail on my show a week ago – Monday February 3rd:

Bertha scoop- the seal is fatally flawed and will need to be replaced. This will require digging a massive open pit to service the machine and about a year of down time to manufacture and install new parts.

As with all of the tips and info I’ve been sharing with you on this debacle, this one has proven to be 100% accurate.

One week later, we got this news Monday night from WSDOT:

Workers might have to dig a hole up to 115 feet deep to reach and repair the damaged drive system of tunnel-boring machine Bertha, contractors now say.

“They’re looking at least six to seven months.”

Did our state hire the most incompetent engineers, geologists and project managers ever? And did they fraudulently rush to start this multi-billion dollar project so there would be no turning back? There aren’t too many other options here.

Crackheads go to prison for stealing $100 from a convenience store. But when property owners, land developers, politicians and labor unions get together to steal billions from taxpayers? Well that’s just another good days work for all of them in the criminal operation that is all too frequent around here.

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State: We’ll fill the Bertha hole with your tax dollars