A 360 video tour of Bertha and Seattle’s SR 99 tunnel

standing near the Lycian way viaduct on top of the tunnel that's going to replace it with a new 360 camera we're taking you on a tour to show you the construction of this master bus starting with Bertha the power boring machine at building this pump we're about 40 feet behind the cover head where you can see how the circular outer wall the tunnel is built what you're seeing right now is a raid statement one of 10 being moved in placed by the ring director [Music] each segment weighs approximately 18 tonnes [Music] this is the last room segment the Keystone it holds the ring together [Music] [Music] now one of the final steps to bolster women please each pole but a foot and a half connected to a nut in the other ring the job done over and over again and back of us you'll see the two primary hyperbaric chambers these are the chambers that the crews use to access the front of the cutter head to preserve protect and maintain Bertha as she goes along or 1.7 miles earning what you're looking at is what few people ever get to see the pilothouse of Bertha you can see the two seats those are the seats for the two main operators but behind them is the mining engineer mining Quality Control and the mining superintendent each with a special focusing remember there's no windows in Bertha this is all done by sensors think about that a tunneling machine as tall as a five-story building 200 feet below Seattle that can hit a target nearly two miles away these guys are the best in the world at what they did we just walked more than 300 feet back we're at the tail end of Bertha what you're looking at is just a complex machine made up of many moving parts but also what you're looking at is completed board tunnel looking down the tunnel she rose and Rose gained shape anchors though anchor the road foundations to the curved tunnel wall moving south down the tunnel you'll see the start of those road foundation if you look around you can see iron workers tying rebar they're fastening is rebar cages to those changeup tankers now the iron workers are working on the wall in front of us and in back of us you'll see these big red things after the rebar secure workers these traveling forms to hold a concrete in place when the concrete cures the forms slide along the rail system to the next concrete floor so the road gets built section by section as you can see as we move away from Bertha the roadway becomes more complete here underneath dentistry get a good sense of what that tunnel will look like it's amazing isn't it look up top see that completed upper roadway deck being supported by those walls and that foundation what's missing is that blower deck because you can't put the lower deck in right now because materials are moving in and out of the common afterbirth is done lower roadway will be a summary we've come up one level we're standing on that upper deck that big yellow tube is up in the ceiling it's bringing fresh air into the tunnel the conveyor belt is above it bringing out material from versland construction of the roadway is a progression chain anchors foundation walls and upper deck Wow just walk 1.5 miles so what we're standing on right now is that upper complete is that the southbound roadway we're at the South another tunnel about ready to come back up to the surface remember this project is by getting highway 99 underneath the at oh well well underway

Channel: wsdot

Views: 92,423

Keywords: SR 99 tunnel, virtual tour, 360-degree camera, 360-degree video, Bertha, Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle, tunnel boring machine, SR 99 tunnel tour, 360 video, 360 camera

Id: jOhpnR5L4jU

Length: 5min 23sec (323 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/it-is-sandwich-time]

I have a thing for 360 video. So f-ing cool and thanks for sharing.

[u/zangelbertbingledack]

This is really, really cool. Glad to see this project up and running after all of the delays.

[u/ExtraNoise]

Wow! That was really cool. I've never seen a 360 video before.

I wish I could have stayed at each spot a little longer to continue looking around.

[u/[deleted]]

So much buffering. And I have 100 Mbps internet...

[u/writenroll]

Great video. I know the tunnel will support freight traffic, but the completed decks sure seem to have a low clearance. Might just be lens perspective, but it felt a little claustrophobic (~4:45 on, for reference).

[u/RubiksSugarCube]

That segment really ties the ring together.