Tunneling

-- by Dave

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I thought you all might be interested in some of the shots I took this week of the Beacon Hill tunnel being built by Sound Transit for the new light-rail line in Seattle. I grew up in construction and much of my family still does it, so I was very interested in it. My brother-in-law, who's working on the site, took me down and showed me around a bit.

It was the scene of a fatal accident a year ago. However, that was obviously something of an anomaly -- the emphasis on safety below was pretty obvious. The only time I was nervous at all came when we were lowered in a "man can" by crane into the tunnel.



We also took a stroll down to where the tunneling machine was doing its thing, but we couldn't get close enough for a photo. This tunnel is still unfinished and somewhat crude compared to the west tunnel above:




The yellow tube you see at the top carries fresh air down to the men working on the tunneling machine.