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Viaduct reopens early
Viaduct reopens early
SEATTLE - Commuters are thrilled the Alaskan Way Viaduct is back open, five days ahead of schedule.
“I think that's fantastic,” says Dan Wilson. “I think Bertha needed a win and I think the folks that commute needed a win.”
Traffic’s been tough the past ten days, although many people did hop on buses, trains and water taxis to try and avoid the congestion on city streets.
“I think it was actually OK, compared to what could happen,” says Wilson.
WSDOT held a press conference this afternoon, to announce the re-opening.
“We would like to thank the public for their tolerance and cooperation,” Todd Trepanier said.
He says WSDOT had planned to tunnel 385 feet before re-opening the viaduct. They estimated that would take two weeks. As of this morning, Bertha had only gone 315 feet. But inspectors say the machine has completely cleared the legs of the viaduct, and the ground underneath remains stable.
“They've done that in such a way that our structural engineers feel very comfortable opening the structure up.”
Bertha will start making its way underneath buildings soon. But the machine is digging deeper now, so engineers say there’s no reason to be concerned.
“As the machine has been moving forward, it's been moving more into the natural soils and away from the fill soil.”
People who live, work and visit downtown hope the progress will continue.
“I think there was a lot of negative talk about it, that it would run into problems,” says Sandra Wilson. “So the fact that it didn't is great news.”
“I think the next big hurdle is this machine coming out the other end,” says Trepanier.
WSDOT doesn’t know when that completion date might be. Now that this phase is complete, they expect Seattle Tunnel Partners to re-evaluate their schedule. But they don’t believe the viaduct will be closed again, until the end of the project.