It's the question some Seattleites have been asking ever since the project was approved, and it's only gotten louder as the delays, issues and blame has piled up…is it too late for Seattle to scrap the whole thing and go with Plan B?
Here's the deal. Bertha is only 10% of the way to her destination. The state and the contractor are already publicly sniping at one another. The drill has been stuck for a month-and-a-half and there is no timetable for when she'll get moving again. The price tag is likely rising to offset fixing the problems and taxpayers will be stuck with the budget overruns.
For Dori Monson, maybe it's time to cut our losses and go another route.
They've already started all the legal battles between Seattle Tunnel Partners and the state. They're both threatening to sue each other. They're trying to figure out who is going to be on the hook for the overruns. It's going to be us. It's going to be the taxpayers and it's going to be in the billions of dollars, I'm still convinced, the overruns alone. We've already had two and half months of delay between the labor stoppage and the mechanical problem with no end in sight. It's time we get some answers.
He's not the only one looking for more answers to troubling questions, either.
With so many politicians signing off on the project and so much money invested, it's hard to believe something like this could be stopped at this point, but with patience already running thin and dollar figures rising, this might go from hypothetical to real question sooner than expected. The fact that we're even posing it is a really, really bad sign for Bertha.
· It's time to stop the Seattle tunnel project [MyNorthwest]
· We need to dig out truth about Bertha problems [Seattle Times]
· What The Hell Did Bertha Run Into Below Seattle? [Curbed Seattle]
· This Week In Seattle Tunnel Project Mishaps: Blame Game Time [Curbed Seattle]
· Bertha Blockage Update: The Mystery Object Is A Pipe. Oh… [Curbed Seattle]
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