April 2014: At a special commemoration ceremony the refurbished Hitachi Zosen EPBM that will excavate twin
running tunnels on the northern section of Seattle Sound Transit’s Northgate light rail extension was unveiled ahead of final
pre-launch safety checks. The 6.4m diameter machine, previously used by the same contractor joint venture
(Jay Dee/Michaels/Coluccio) for completion of 1.1km of twin running tunnels for Sound Transit’s University Link extension,
will launch in June (2014) southwards from the tunnel portal at Northeast 94th Street, all the way through to Washington Station
with scheduled maintenance stops at Roosevelt and U-District Stations. The refurbished Robbins machine that will mine the
parallel tunnel is scheduled to launch in October 2014.
Snapshot
Seattle Northgate Link TBM dedication
Sterling Noren reporting for TunnelCast
| Project: |
Northgate Link LRT, Seattle |
| Total Cost: |
US$2.1 billion |
| Contractor: |
JCM Northlink JV (Jay Dee/Collucio/Michaels) |
| Client: |
Seattle Sound Transit (SST) |
| Contract Sum: |
US$440.3 million |
| Contract Scope: |
Design-bid-build construction of 5.5km of twin running tunnels; Roosevelt and Brooklyn (University District) cut and cover stations; North tunnel portal |
| Designer: |
Jacobs Associates |
| Geotechnical Consultant: |
Shannon & Wilson |
| TBMs: |
2 x 6.4m diameter EPBMs (Hitachi Zosen and Robbins), plus reserve EPBM (Mitsubishi) |
| Scheduled Opening: |
2021 |
