Bertha ground to a temporary halt this morning after a mishap with a barge used to carry away excavated soil from the project. Problems began when the barge began tipping to one side after Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) employees loaded it. In order to avoid damaging the conveyer system, they disconnected the barge from its terminal, causing excavated soil (which the Washington State Department of Transportation says is clean) to tip into the water. Newly adrift, the barge proceeded to knock into one of the piers owned by WSDOT before it was tethered again. The materials on board are now being transferred to another barge. STP is also checking to see if either the terminal or the pier were damaged.
Dumping dirt into harbors has a long history in Seattle – in fact, it was used to construct the city’s waterfront between the 1920s and 30s (as Crosscut covered here). As a hill near the waterfront was leveled, boats designed to tip over and then right themselves carried away the excess soil and dumped it into the bay.
