Beacon Hill Tunnel (Seattle, Washington)

Beacon Hill Tunnel
Overview
Tunnel's west portal under an elevated portion of Interstate 5
Location	Seattle, Washington
Coordinates	47°34′37″N 122°19′12″W / 47.577°N 122.320°W / 47.577; -122.320Coordinates: 47°34′37″N 122°19′12″W / 47.577°N 122.320°W / 47.577; -122.320
Status	Active
Start	SoDo, Seattle, Washington
End	Rainier Valley, Seattle, Washington near Mount Baker station
Operation
Owner	Sound Transit
Traffic	Link Light Rail
Technical
Construction	2005–2009
Length	1 mi (1.6 km)
Tunnel clearance	21 ft (6.4 m)^[1]
Width	21 ft (6.4 m)^[1]

Beacon Hill Tunnel is a public transit tunnel in Seattle, Washington, carrying the Central Link light rail 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 165 feet (50 m) underground near the midpoint of the tunnel.

Construction

Construction of the station 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 2 3 Beacon Hill Station and Tunnel factsheet (PDF), Sound Transit, 2008
↑ Carl Molesworth (June 5, 2006). "Inside the Emerald Mole". Pacific Builder and Engineer. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14.
↑ "Sound Transit digs a cutting-edge tunnel". DJC. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
↑ 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
↑ Eric de Place (October 2009), Sightline Report: Cost Overruns For Seattle-Area Tunnel Projects (PDF), Sightline Institute, retrieved 2013-04-04

Bridges and tunnels in and around Seattle

Bridges

Road	Alaskan Way Viaduct Ballard Bridge Cowen Park Bridge East Channel Bridge Evergreen Point Floating Bridge First Avenue South Bridge Fremont Bridge George Washington Memorial Bridge (Aurora Bridge) Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge (Third Lake Washington Floating Bridge) Jose Rizal Bridge Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge (I-90 Floating Bridge) Magnolia Bridge Montlake Bridge North Queen Anne Drive Bridge Schmitz Park Bridge Ship Canal Bridge South Park Bridge Spokane Street Bridge 20th Avenue NE Bridge University Bridge West Seattle Bridge

Rail	Salmon Bay Bridge Wilburton Trestle

Tunnels

Road	Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel (under construction) Aubrey Davis Park (Mercer Island Lid) Battery Street Tunnel Convention Center-Freeway Park Lid Mount Baker Tunnel

Rail	Beacon Hill Tunnel Great Northern Tunnel Northgate Link Extension Tunnel University Link Tunnel

Multi	Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel

Utility	Brightwater sewage tunnel

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, October 06, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.