Boring Report - Let's Dig a Tunnel

One important activity in Seattle right now is complaining.  It’s one of many sites across the nation where people wander around complaining.  It’s like a national sport without trophies. 

Digging tunnels is another activity in Seattle.  We have new sewage tunnels, light rail tunnels, and tunnels where they store wine until its ready.

The State DOT (WashDOT) is replacing a part of Highway 99 in Seattle called the Alaska Way Viaduct.  The replacement will be a tunnel.  The old viaduct sustained damage in an earthquake and WashDOT realized it might collapse when we have the next big one.  Tunnels don’t have so far to fall.

The other big reason to replace the viaduct is that it annoys some of the nearby property owners.  Regular people want to live close to the city where the busses are free and so are some of the street people.  That means a good use for many of the old buildings is conversion to condos.  It’s hard to sell a condo if the view is just a noisy six lane highway.  That’s low rent stuff and not very attractive.  Condos also get much higher property tax for the state.

Hundreds of thousands of cars use that corridor every month so we can’t just tear it down and pass out good luck charms.  If those cars went over to I-5 it would be horrible.  We experience that from time to time because they shut down the viaduct for inspections and damage repair.

I-5 runs under the convention center in downtown Seattle and nobody can figure out how to make the highway wider and still have conventions.  I have an idea but nobody listens to me.  It involves dynamite.

Back to Alaska Way.  Many years before I was born, more than 10,000 years ago, Seattle was covered in ice.  I read someplace they think it was 3,000 feet thick here.  That ice carried huge boulders, sand and gravel, dirt, and maple leaves from Canada and left much of it in Seattle.  The debris included chunks of ice caught beneath the other stuff.  When the surface ice melted this stuff was left behind.  The buried chunks of ice also eventually melted and left voids.  Some of those voids are still there.

Most of the lakes around the area were formed by ice gouging out depressions.  The Seattle area terrain was largely formed when the glaciers melted away.  This is important when you want to dig a tunnel.  It’s also a nuisance when you want to plant a flower.

Seattle has about 40 miles of tunnels.  They first ones were dug over 120 years ago.  We like to dig tunnels.  To dig an adequate tunnel years ago you needed a good sturdy shovel.  They use powerful Tunnel Boring Machines now.  These are custom built to the diameter of the expected tunnel.  They have carbide tipped teeth that are supposed to chew through anything.

 The conglomerate left by the glaciers makes it a particular challenge.  What if you crunch through a granite boulder right into one of those voids?  What if it’s still full of water?  There are other risks as well.  What if you punch into one of the existing tunnels or an old abandoned well?  What if the Governor shows up with her giant bulldozer?  These are all questions the planning team has to answer.  Certainly not me, I can hardly plan cereal for breakfast.

Tunnels in Seattle carry trains, cars and busses, water, gas, electricity, beer, and sewage.  If the boring machine hits any of those it could delay the project for decades.  Thus planning and testing are important.  Already around town we’ve seen rigs poking holes in the proposed path of the new tunnel to verify what might be down there.

During the actual tunnel operation that Verizon guy will be yelling “Can you hear me now?”  If anyone in the bus tunnel hears him then they have to back up and try again.  Maybe they could get an iPhone and just ask it.  We at the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report have many suggestions (actually Glen, the Lake Boren Carp) for how to avoid hitting existing tunnels.  I imagine WashDOT has its own suggestions.  Theirs is probably “Don’t punch a hole in another tunnel.”

 Another key to successful tunneling is to make sure the TBM doesn’t get stuck.  That’s what happened in the Brightwater discharge tunnel.  The plant sits over in Woodinville and they want to run clean former sewage through the tunnel to Puget Sound.  The plant has plenty of cleaning processes so the waste water should be OK for the fish.  Anyway, during the digging a machine got stuck.  They couldn’t move it any direction now matter how hard they cussed.  Finally a world class tunnel rat worked it out.  Whew!  Lucky for us that fiasco was hidden underground or we might have had Occupy Brightwater.

One of the other characteristics of boring a big tunnel is they need a huge staging area.  They need to dig a big hole and assemble the boring machine down there.  They need a place to pile up the tunnel lining modules before hauling them into the tunnel.  They need room for the muck they pull out behind the TBM.  That muck has to be trucked to Maple Valley.  That means they also need room for big trucks to turn around, load up, and head out.  There will be several construction trailers, big orange machines, and hundreds of feet of rented fence.  That fence is to keep me out because otherwise I’d be right there watching.

The plan is to open the new tunnel in about 2006.  We don’t think they’ll make it.  But if we keep our fingers crossed they might get started before summer.  They’ve already torn down about a mile of the viaduct to make room for the huge staging area.  The rented fence is everywhere.  Everyone grab a shovel and come on out to Seattle and help out.  It’s better than just pitching a tent and complaining about everything.

Al

2011 Stumbling to a Close

As a public service I’m going to provide a list of New Year’s Resolutions.  Later.  As a preview: get a riding mower (unless you already have one) and join a racing team.

First let’s review the year.   Local municipal construction took a break.  They finally broke loose and began the Newcastle Library and the Lake Boren Condos. 

Everyone in Bellevue fought the light rail plans.  Some are against it because it gets too close to their house.  Some are against it because it’s too far from their house.  Some don’t like it because they think cars are a much better way to get big spenders into Bellevue Square.  Others are against it because they just don’t like Bellevue.  And everyone thinks it costs too much.  So last month the plan was unanimously approved.  Pretty logical.

 The Brightwater Sewage Treatment project is wrapping up.  Except they now think there is too much capacity.  Kind of a funny thing to say.  Anyway, the point of the new plant was to provide sewage service to the urban expansion in the north King and south Snohomish county interior.  Most of the Greater Newcastle Metropolitan area near water has a pipe that takes care of stuff.  Unlike Costa Rica where you can’t flush toilet paper because it makes the sewer back up.  Thus the project to take care of the huge future sewage problem is in question because the future has not yet arrived.  More logic.

Lake Boren Park requires all pets to be on a leash.  It’s part of the Newcastle leash law.  The City Council has been discussing a location for an official off-leash area for a long time.  They (my understanding anyway) chose a section of the new sports park down by May Creek.  It’s a big undeveloped area where they intend to build several ball fields and an ice rink or something.  However, many pet owners use Lake Boren Park to toss tennis balls to their unleashed pets.  Many.  Every time I go there I see dogs chasing tennis balls or squirrels.  It’s not a priority for enforcement.  What I don’t get is why the Council spends so much time talking about it when the citizens have already made their choice.  More logic.

The Alaska Way Viaduct is scheduled to be replaced by a tunnel.  The tunnel will connect the existing SR 99 near the stadiums and the existing tunnel up north.  One expects the project to bore into the soft underbelly of Seattle and make a smoother commute.  However, it seems that digging a tunnel requires lots of closures of the existing viaduct.  It’s above ground and normally tunnels go underground.  Oh, it turns out they need a huge space for the construction stuff.  (Not the same “stuff” that goes to Brightwater.)  So in order to get the big staging area they need to remove the southern mile of the existing viaduct and make a bypass.  Just a few weeks disruption.  But it trains drivers for what to expect when the viaduct finally closes for good.  Clear?

On another front the SR 520 Floating Bridge is getting tolls.  They need to replace the bridge since they think this one will sink in the next earthquake or an 80 MPH wind.  Apparently it’s fragile.  To afford the new one they need to collect money from people who use it.  Starting last spring.  Except the company they hired to put the tolling system in place was suddenly swamped with contracts from several other projects around the country.  They had to rapidly expand in order to handle all the work and the newbies were not up to speed.  They think it’s all ready to go now and tolling will start before the end of the year.  So here’s the plan: make people using the fragile old bridge pay a toll to sink it.  One imagines that if you happen to be on the bridge when it sinks you’ll get a refund.  It’s the logic I like.

The Museum of Flight near Boeing Field is building a large hanger for the Space Shuttle full fuselage trainer.  NASA has decided to give away the current fleet to museums around the country.  Seattle gets the trainer.  It’s the same size as a regular shuttle except it doesn’t have wings and it never flew into space.  Regular shuttles can fly on the back of a 747.  NASA is taking it apart and hopes to ship it to Seattle in the “Super Guppy” cargo plane.  That means NASA is shipping plywood from Texas to Seattle where one of the main industries is lumber.

New Year’s Resolutions:

·         Don’t sell your car yet because it’ll be another decade before Bellevue gets light rail.

·         Go ahead and flush because we have enough sewage treatment capacity to handle it for years to come.  We might even take some of Costa Rica’s.

·         Throw tennis balls to Fido as much as you want.  He’ll enjoy it.

·         Keep away from SR 99 and SR 520 for the next 15 years.

·         Visit the Museum of Flight often because it’s so big you won’t be able to see it all in one visit.  Resolution for next year: visit again and see the full fuselage trainer.

·         And, of course, get a riding mower and soup it up for racing.  Replace the blade with a discus because when you flip it over you don’t want to hurt anyone.

Prediction: When the new SR 520 Floating Bridge opens they’ll have a parade of riding mowers first over.  You’ll be right there with your 420 HP racer.

 Al

Lake Boren Upscale

We here at the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report are always on the lookout for ways to keep you informed.  The primary purpose is to remind everyone that we’re still on the job.  The secondary goal is to help you understand what’s going on with the grand plan for a Rapid Transit Center on the shores of Lake Boren.  Last our purpose is to make stuff up because the real news is just annoying.

Sound Transit and the Bellevue City Council have been arguing over the light rail route in Bellevue for years.  In a stunning development the City Council voted unanimously to approve the Sound Transit plan.  The main point of the agreement was that nobody is happy.  In other words the reason for the agreement is that everyone lost something.

We don’t need to get all in depth over it but the Evelyn Wood version is that the route on Bellevue Way and 112^th annoys the lowest number of people.  And those that would be most annoyed will have their houses purchased so they can move to Newcastle.

In Newcastle we’ll have a new library branch sometime next fall.  The steel frame is going up that will hold up the weed covered roof.  We watched as they installed the cistern that will be used to water the weeds.  Apparently the point is that a layer of dirt and live vegetation will provide adequate insulation for the main part of the library.

On the corner leading into the Safeway strip mall parking area and the street the library is on they erected stop lights.  Just like a big city we’ll have a crosswalk and left turn arrow.  For some reason everything is installed but the lights have not been activated.

Down the street some there’s a new condo growing out of the ground that will have a commanding view of Lake Boren.  During construction lulls one can look over the trees and see another project on the far hillside.  As a retired person I get to spend time watching the projects slowly come to life.  Nobody pays me so I don’t care if I waste time.

Meanwhile over in Bellevue we have this light rail agreement all approved and ready for the construction crews.  Except for the legal issue about running the tracks on I-90.  Several cities across the country have installed these light rail systems and they run them along some of the streets taking up lanes where cars used to go.  Here in the Greater Newcastle Metro Area we have a street that was completely rebuilt to add transit down the middle and still have two lanes going in each direction.

We don’t know for sure if any of those projects actually use an Interstate but I would bet some do.  I don’t go everywhere so I just don’t know.  Maybe that’s a good project for me; go everywhere and inspect light rail systems.  Would somebody pay me for that?

I like to ride the rail once in awhile and watch how the locals behave.  That part of town where it goes down the street has a large population of people who don’t speak English.  Most of them speak these Asian dialects.  Several are a little miffed that the bus route they used to take to work has been discontinued and replaced by the light rail.  You can see signs along the way expressing miffness.

Bellevue has a completely different kind of neighborhood that will have a rail line running down the street.  Most of those people don’t speak anything but English.  And they speak it very loudly when you mention the light rail plan.  Their signs are bigger, too.

To make their point these anti rail people have joined to form a protest group and their plan is to occupy Lake Boren.  That’s right; they will pull up their hip boots and wade into the lake with signs in all languages.  Glen will be furious.

One result (we hope) is that they will raise the water level and make it drain faster into Boren Creek.  When they are eventually evicted the lake will go way down and we can see all the debris that’s been under water for years.

In the mean time architectural drawings of the palatial Lake Boren Rapid Transit Center are progressing.  Plans call for a performing arts center, world class art museum, and a dunk tank.  At some point way out in the future we’ll have trains from all over Puget Sound running right through Newcastle.  By that time we’ll probably have a bullet train to Portland going.  It’ll be amazing.  The Newcastle City Council will probably do something to mess up the plans but until then we can dream of how wonderful it’ll be when it’s all finished in 2182.

 Al

A Veteran's Road Trip

Long ago, before most of us were born, there were purported to be massive sheets of ice covering most of Canada and some of the northern tier of the US, and Texas.  There is ample evidence to support this purportation.

The Pleistocene has lasted for about 2.5 million years, although many think it’s time has passed.  Anyway one of the features of this epoch (yes, I used that work right) are the Ice Ages.  Perhaps you’ve seen the movie?  There are those who wonder if maybe we’re just experiencing a lull between glaciations.  These and other mysteries of the planet will be resolved in my upcoming best seller: Al Explains Science! 

Ice has an interesting tendency to melt and when it’s over 3,000 feet thick it can produce a lot of water.  Another thing the ice managed was to dam up valleys which in turn resulted in lakes.  One such lake is called Glacial Lake Missoula.  There were many others but this one was a biggy.

J. Harlan Bretz long ago sometime last century suggested that a large portion of Eastern Washington had been visited by enormous floods.  He pointed to thousands of artifacts that have turned out to be evidence of such floods.  At first he was concerned about mentioning this theory because he didn’t know where the water came from.  He reasoned that glaciers were the source of the water but he also realized that the runoff would not have produced the kinds of forces he thought were required to do that much damage.

Later other scientists found water lines high on the hills around Missoula and realized that there was a lake there.  That had to be the source of the great flood.  Evidence has also been found which suggests it happened numerous times.

At this point you may wish to check this story for yourselves.  I’ll wait.  Take your time.  Tumm Tee Tum Tum…  See?  Told ya.

And getting around to what this report is about; this week leading up to Veteran’s Day we took off to visit the coulees of Eastern Washington.  Coulee is the name give to drainage channels and it is applied to many features in the area.  The ice berg topped water from Montana roared down across the basalt lava fields and cut channels.  Some of the channels are quite deep.  One is called Grand Coulee.  It’s near the Grand Coulee Dam.  That’s what runs my toaster.

We visited the Grand Coulee, Dry Falls, Lake Lenore Caves, and Banks Lake.  These are even more interesting when you have some idea how they were formed.  At the lower end of the Grand Coulee, near Quincy, you can see a lot of basalt debris that was washed out of the coulees during the floods.  This is part of Harlan’s evidence.  

Quincy also has large Internet server installations.  That’s because being near the Grand Coulee Dam electricity is cheap (actually they got cheap electricity because they bought the contracts from an old aluminum plants, but that’s yet another story for my book).  The other ample commodity is water.  Water is used to keep the computers cool.  The dam has scads of water and eastern Washington farmers use it to raise billions of dollars in crops.  It’s delivered in irrigation canals and one runs right by Quincy.  It’s an ideal spot for companies that need electricity and water in large amounts.

But that’s not the end of the trip.

We also visited Fairchild Air Force Base.  Our intent was to see the B-52 that’s allegedly parked there and open to the public.  Well, apparently the public is no longer welcome there.  Since I’m part of the public I didn’t get past the front gate.  Apparently Americans are a threat to America’s armed forces.

So we wandered down to a wildlife refuge.  We saw one magpie.  There were no deer or antelope, no ducks, no moose, no bear, or anything else.  Oh, there was a bus load of kids from a local school.  Maybe there’s a connection.

We saw plenty of wildlife just about everywhere else.  Deer seem to be gathering in groups of 8 or 10.  We also saw big horn sheep and a plastic owl.  Lots of hawks, too.

We visited Spokane where we saw something called the Bowl and Pitcher.  I think I figured out the pitcher but not the bowl.  Oh, well.  What they are is great giant rocks in the Spokane River.  They remind some people of the old bowl and pitcher that you find in museums depicting “pre-bathroom” bedrooms.  When you first woke up you could pour some water into the bowl for a shave.  I guess, how would I know, I’m not a “pre-bathroom” person?

We drove up as far as we could on Mount Spokane.  They ski there when the snow gets deep enough.  It’s nice to visit snow and then turn around and get away from it.  Living with it all over the streets at home is not fun.

After the Spokane leg of the trip we returned westerly using a route farther south in the state.  We saw several of the lesser coulees and flood features.  It’s very interesting when you know what you’re looking at.  There are hawks everywhere (except in the preserves).  They’re after rodents that live near the irrigated agriculture.  Good for the hawks.

The only wheat we saw was either already harvested or newly planted winter wheat.  Seems like there are more sheep and llamas than there used to be.  And more deer.  I can tell them apart mostly because deer have bigger ears.

We arrived at a place in the Yakima Canyon called the Canyon River Ranch.  You can see pictures if you check Google Images.  They are in winter rates so it was inexpensive.  We saw big horn sheep and more deer.

Here’s a really boring tidbit: we stayed in three different places.  All three were arranged so that the bathroom was not next to the bedroom.  One was downstairs and the other two were diagonally across the main room.  OK, we stayed in “suites” which are becoming more common among the motel set.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting that even though it was a hike to the bathroom there were no “bowl and pitchers” in the bedrooms.

On Veteran’s Day morning we checked the weather and they expected 8 to 10 inches of snow in the passes.  So we packed up and came home.  On the way home we stopped off at Applebee’s for a free Veteran’s Day meal.  Red Robin is doing that too.  Kind of nice of them. 

One of the requirements to prove veteranship is a photo in uniform.  I have a couple of those but I wouldn’t want to let them out.  I used the one of me crossing an un-named creek in South Viet Nam.  It worked.  There were lots of old persons there in VFW and Legion clothes and a few actual military people in uniform.  Very crowded and yet a lot of fun.  It was a really good burger, too.

 Al

Lake Boren Flood Report

Lake Boren is a nice little lake in glittering Newcastle, Washington. Over the years Glen, the Lake Boren carp, has worked hard to keep the lake level under control. Tirelessly, one might say. In 1996 Newcastle incorporated and as part of that they announced that the “city” was now responsible for control of the lake level.


That was easy to say since nobody at that time realized it might take a little effort. Water flows into the lake from the east and west. Water from the west is more of a trickle since storm drains take care of most of it. That’s because the contours of the land don’t result in a natural creek channel to the lake.

The east, however, has a natural contour that acts as a drain for a large portion of the hillside. It spills right into Lake Boren. That’s why Lake Boren Creek exits the south end of the lake and deposits the water into May Creek. Check Google Earth.

One of the benefits is Lake Boren is pretty clean most of the time. Until recently, that is. Now it turns brown and goopy during heavy winter rains. Apparently it also gets into yards where it never did before.

The problem is the hillside to the east has been extensively developed and more water finds its way into the drainage contour than before. The old forest used to soak up a lot of water. Now with houses, streets, and driveways more water runs down the hill. Add sprinkler systems and the occasional water balloon fight and it becomes a torrent. The golf course is also uphill from the lake and you know how much water that can produce.

Glen, the Lake Boren carp, has grown tired (remember tirelessly?) of doing work the city says it’s responsible for. He’s taken to traveling all over the world via the natural waterways to visit various pals, such as the Loch Ness Monster. This neglect has resulted in Lake Boren Creek becoming clogged with fallen trees and other stuff such as rocks and possibly silts. (Don’t ask me, Microsoft thinks silt should have an “s” on the end.)

Anyway, folks living on the shore have noticed that the water comes up more than it used to. Newcastle thinks King County used to dredge the creek to keep it open before it became the city’s problem. They didn’t see any reason to do that during all the Coal Creek Parkway construction. And now they’ve let the creek get clogged.

So far not too funny. Here’s where it gets fun. The city has hired an engineering consultant firm to tell them how to deal with the water. I didn’t know they were asking or I would have told them for nothing.

This high dollar consultant will do a topographic survey, hydraulic analysis, and wetlands delineation. Then prepare topographic, profile, and cross-section maps. It’ll cost about a year’s salary. That’s before any work gets done. We’ll see them hiking all over Newcastle with tons of high priced gadgets and tape measures. We’ll know who they are by the hip waders and water wings. It could take dozens of minutes or even an hour to figure out which way the water runs. Hint; it’s downhill.

The result will be a couple of big trees worth of paper. Everyone in Newcastle will get something in the mail, probably. The city council will get the final report and recommendation for extensive work. There will be culverts, retaining walls, weirs, wetlands mitigation, jailhouse windows, and plenty of truckloads of dirt going to and from Maple Valley.

Don’t ask me what some of those things are. Can you put a weir near a jailhouse window? These are technical questions we need the consultants to answer.

At strategic points along the process we’ll get the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife all involved. Yeah, right, the Newcastle News says they might be able to finish the whole project by next summer. With the corps and the fish people are involved it’ll add a year each.

The eventual alleged work could cost well over $100,000. Newcastle doesn’t have that kind of money. Or they could apologize to Glen and he’ll clean out the creek for nothing. Well maybe a few hundred pounds of fresh oysters.

Meanwhile over in Bellevue (motto: we can’t possibly get any bigger, can we? YES!). They’re looking at building a basketball arena for an NBA team. The Seattle area still holds the rights to the “Sonics” name so all we need is an arena and a team. Bellevue has plenty of areas where that can happen.

Bellevue also has kind of a confluence of freeways, except we’re going to get tolls on them at some point. Anyway, fans can get to the new arena. We also have bus service, Rapid Ride, and someday maybe light rail. In fact this kind of facility fits right into the grand plan for development in the Overlake area.

A large basketball arena would be the focal point for eats and shops. If they do it right people going to and from games would spend lots of money nearby.

Another kind of sport that can share the same arena is hockey. All you need to do is put refrigeration coils under the basketball floor and then flood it and freeze it. I hear there’s plenty of water available in Lake Boren.

A confederation of sports fans is proposing that we get the legislature to look at some kind of public funding package for the arena. Maybe they could hire those water consultants to draft a hydraulic analysis that includes using Lake Boren water for the ice. They would get rich. None of us could afford a ticket to a basketball game but we’d sure be proud of our fancy new arena. “Bellevue Sonics” has no charm or romance. Can you think of a better name? Submit your suggestions and win a free dinner at Gold Creek.

Al