New cracks in viaduct while Big-Bertha still sleeps...

News that you might want to be aware of -- especially for those of us who travel off the island.

Check it out at
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2014/03/10_SR99Inspections.htm

The important part is that the Alaska Way viaduct is going to close on March 22 for a spell... so engineers can inspect:

..."new cracks, as well as movement and widening of existing cracks, along girders and supports near Spring and Seneca streets. "    from WSDOT


And in case you would like to read further commentary and reporting on all things West Seattle, including transportation and over-development  -- check out the westseattleblog.com
(who always provides real time and pertinent West Seattle news).

I know I have said this in previous posts, but it seems relevant given today's news and certainly deserves another posting...

My husband and I have always called the Alaskan Way viaduct  "the IHOP" -- which of course stands for "International House of Pancakes".    From day one of living in Seattle (when we moved here 20 years ago) -- and we read about the double-decker death trap of a viaduct... we knew it was a potential "flattening" mechanism of demise.  Yet, we continued to drive it... what choice do Seattleites really have when I-5 is a parking lot from dawn to dusk? 

So --we would choose to drive on the viaduct with a rather macabre sense of humor -- calling it the IHOP while we drove as fast as we could to get off it.

Now it continues to crumble -- and you can actually see cracked concrete and "stuff" when you drive across it -- especially from the lower deck.   And to make matters worse... Big-Bertha, our state-of-the-art "digger", continues to be inoperable, delaying the viaduct's replacement tunnel construction. 

Two major unknowns here as far as I can see:
When will the viaduct fall down?
Will the viaduct be replaced before it falls down?

The third question that goes along with the first two is:
When will Big-Bertha get fired so that we can get on with actually replacing the viaduct?

Oh, one last thing -- some people believe that it is the tunneling project that has brought on new cracks -- sounds like a reasonable deduction. 

Have a great day and pay no attention to the recent, major, tectonic activity along the West Coast...