U-Link Update: January 2012
January 27, 2012 at 1:22 pm By
About Martin H. DukeMartin joined the blog in Fall 2007 and became Editor-in-Chief in 2009. He is originally from suburban DC, but has lived in the Greater Seattle area since 1997. He lives with his family in Columbia City and splits his work time as a Communications Engineer between the Eastgate area and Tukwila.
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pretty impressed that Balto is almost 3/4 of the way done … I’ve asked ST (no reply) about when Brenda will start up again … anyone here know?
Brenda already started back up on the 2nd tunnel once, but then the ice storm caused a little power issue that resulted in loss of an electrical component. That issue should be about fixed, so they expect to start it back up again soon.
I think they’ve got her fixed. It looked to me like they dug about 15 feet yesterday.
OK! Why is Togo so far ahead of Balto? Inquiring minds want to know.
They started about a month apart.
Thank you for a simple and informative answer. :-)
Picture is inaccurate… Half of the stadium is gone, now :-)
It’s a lousy graphic — one of the worst I have ever seen.
It’s not supposed to be a standalone graphic. It’s a widget on their project page. We’re presenting it out of context. Its purpose is much clearer when it’s not separated from other content by tons of whitespace.
Lousy widget or lousy graphic, the key word is still “lousy”.
Do we know if they’re ahead of, on time or behind schedule?
From Joni Earl’s weekly CEO Report:
The “updated” (3/2009) project schedule shows tunneling for UW Station lasting a couple months into 2013.
So, ahead.
Lookin’ good. What say you hipster, pals?
Any monorail fans out there? Fujimi makes an N-Scale kit of Tokyo’s monorail … http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10158554 and http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10158555
Togo will probably be finished by March at the rate it is going right now. Brenda will be about 4-6 months and Balto probably around the June/July time frame.
It does make me wonder – what are the chances of this segment opening early? I’m sure it’s premature to even think that but at the rate things seem to be going, can we start guessing as to if that may happen?
There is still a lot to be done (need to construct the stations, OCS and install track bed. Are the x-over tunnels being done at the same time as the boring?
I would be willing to bet that the tunneling portion of the work has the most float in the schedule… so maybe that is a possibility. I might be making this up but I remember hearing somewhere that there was something like 130 days of float in the whole project schedule. That could be totally wrong though.
If the contracts for everything else can be moved ahead to match the early tunnel completion, then this segment can open early. If not, not.
I’m wondering if the EIS etc. can be finished for North Link in time to move the TBMs straight from U-Link to North Link, but probably not.
The North Link EIS is done. They’re working on final engineering now.
Whether the TBMs will be reused for those tunnels depends upon who wins the bid for the North Link tunneling contract. It will be up to them to acquire the TBMs. They’re not owned by ST.
Transportation is an expensive pain for TBMs, so it just seems stupid to ship one set out and ship another set in. :-P That’s all. I hope whoever wins the bid buys the TBMs which are in Seattle, even if they do need new cutting heads.
When does construction begin on first hill streetcar? I heard this month…
When does work begin on Rapid Ride C&D? For RR D, will 15th/ Elliot outer lanes become dedicated RR lanes 24 hrs a day?