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SEATTLE: Big Seattle tunnel drill almost done in Japan

Workers in Osaka, Japan, are nearly finished making a giant tunnel drill for Seattle’s new waterfront state Route 99 tunnel.

Published: Nov. 24, 2012 at 12:05 a.m. PST
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Workers in Osaka, Japan, are nearly finished making a giant tunnel drill for Seattle’s new waterfront state Route 99 tunnel.

The Seattle Times said the world-record 57.5-foot-diameter drill is scheduled to dig below Seattle next year.

The giant cutter head will be attached to a machine that is longer than a football field.

The team at Hitachi-Zosen will test the machine before the state Department of Transportation formally accepts it at a ceremony in December.

Then the drill will be dismantled into 41 sections and shipped to Seattle in March. Drilling of the two-mile tunnel is scheduled to start in June.

The Associated Press

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