Five-Story High Robot Found Underneath Seattle

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  Aug 03, 2014 2:51 AM GMT

  
  
  NYT: The robot is named Bertha and she is devouring earth underneath Seattle to create new tunnels to route traffic along the waterfront. The robot was recently stopped by allegedly a pipe. Beyond Bertha’s problems, the tunnel plan itself has also become intertwined with a larger debate about the city’s future, as the biggest building boom in at least a decade is reshaping the skyline and adding thousands of new residents — and their cars.
  
  More than 100 residential and commercial building projects are in some stage of construction, permitting or completion in downtown Seattle — the most since at least 2005 — the Downtown Seattle Association, a trade group, said in June.
  
  Seattle already had the fourth worst traffic congestion in the nation.
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/us/reanimating-bertha-the-mechanical-behemoth-stuck-under-seattle.html?

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• Ursa_maritimu...
  
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  Aug 04, 2014 2:13 AM GMT

  So the answer to their traffic problem is to build large tunnels with a costly mechanical failure while reinforcing more car use for an additional population who will further increase congestion in the near future? Genius!

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  Aug 04, 2014 5:57 AM GMT

  Most recently, Bertha was in Portland, digging similar tubes that are used... to store sewage until it can be treated. Instead of letting it run into the river, as in the previous century.
  
  Bertha is run by a cadre of maniacal Danes who can be found spouting obtuse engineering equations, crawling through mud with large tools, or drinking heavily in seedy bars, depending on the situation.

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  Aug 04, 2014 2:12 PM GMT

  mindgarden said... Bertha is run by a cadre of maniacal Danes who can be found spouting obtuse engineering equations, crawling through mud with large tools, or drinking heavily in seedy bars ...

  
  Bertha was made in Japan at the Hitachi Sakai Works
  
  
  
  reference
  [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_%28tunnel_boring_machine%29[/url]

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• kew1
  
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  Aug 04, 2014 5:10 PM GMT

  mindgarden saidMost recently, Bertha was in Portland, digging similar tubes that are used... to store sewage until it can be treated. Instead of letting it run into the river, as in the previous century.
  
  Bertha is run by a cadre of maniacal Danes who can be found spouting obtuse engineering equations, crawling through mud with large tools, or drinking heavily in seedy bars, depending on the situation.

  
  
  Any pictures of this?

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  Aug 05, 2014 3:29 PM GMT

  kew1 said... Any pictures of this?

  works that way

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  Aug 05, 2014 7:07 PM GMT

  Oh, must be a different machine. The ones used in Portland were made by a German company, but they called one of them something like "Big Bertha." Might have been some other cutesy but... large sounding name.
  
  But I was also being obscure - the guys I met who worked around the cutting head were Danes. Normally, of course, nobody goes on the "muddy" side of the cutting head because there is usually pressurized water over there. When somebody does have to go through, to fix something, they call in contractors who are equipped to work under those conditions. E.g. my brother's company, which is how I met those guys. Drinking beer here on the farm at a bbq.
  Probably a stupid post, all in all.

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  Aug 06, 2014 3:14 PM GMT

  sincerely; your company must be very interesting

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