Beacon_Hill_tunnel_(Seattle)

Beacon Hill tunnel (Seattle)

Beacon Hill tunnel (Seattle)

Rail tunnels in Seattle, Washington, United States

Beacon Hill tunnel is a public transit tunnel in Seattle, Washington, carrying light rail trains on the 1 Line under Seattle's Beacon Hill between Rainier Valley and SoDo just east of Interstate 5.[1] The Beacon Hill Link Light Rail station is approximately 160 feet (49 m) underground near the midpoint of the tunnel.

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Construction

Construction of the tunnel began in March 2005 and was completed in July 2009. Obayashi Corporation was the general contractor. The twin running tunnels were excavated with a tunnel boring machine (TBM) built by Mitsubishi, named the "Emerald Mole."[2] The station and crossover tunnels were constructed using the sequential excavation method (SEM), also known as the New Austrian tunnelling method (NATM).[3]

Several workers were injured and one was killed during construction of the tunnel.[4]

The tunnel was completed at a cost of $309 million, versus Obayashi's bid of $280 million.[5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beacon Hill Tunnel (Seattle, Washington).
  1. [1]
    Beacon Hill Station and Tunnel factsheet (PDF), Sound Transit, 2008[permanent dead link]
  2. [2]
    Carl Molesworth (June 5, 2006). "Inside the Emerald Mole". Pacific Builder and Engineer. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14.
  3. [3]
    "Sound Transit digs a cutting-edge tunnel". DJC. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  4. [4]
    Levi Pulkkinen; Larry Lange (February 7, 2007), "Worker killed in Sound Transit tunnel: Second accident in three months at light rail site", Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  5. [5]
    Eric de Place (October 2009), Sightline Report: Cost Overruns For Seattle-Area Tunnel Projects (PDF), Sightline Institute, retrieved 2013-04-04[permanent dead link]
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