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Crews Fill Battery Street Tunnel With Viaduct Rubble By Lori Tobias CEG CORRESPONDENT
Crews have cut holes in between the lanes of the Battery Street Tunnel to help move crew and equipment between each side of the tunnel during decommissioning and filling.
Yet another project in Seattle’s $3.3 billion Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program is under way. Crews began filling in the Battery the ceiling, the existing space will be filled with Street Tunnel in early May with rubble from the low-density, cellular concrete. The concrete will be demolished Alaskan Way Viaduct. The tunnel was mixed on site, eliminating the need to truck 4,000 decommissioned after it was found to be seismiloads of concrete on local roads. cally vulnerable. The final step is scheduled to occur in late 2019 “The Battery Street Tunnel was built in the and early 2020. Once the tunnel is filled, the vents ‘50s,” said Washington State Department of will be removed and sealed up as part of other surTransportation (WSDOT) spokeswoman Laura face street restoration work on Battery Street Newborn. “Any other use for that tunnel would scheduled for summer 2020. The road to the north have required $100 million plus in seismic that formerly descended into the tunnel is being upgrades.” raised to grade level and streets on either side The tunnel measures 2,100 ft. long, 66 ft. wide reconnected, creating new cross streets. and is 15 ft. high inside. The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement The suggestion to use the rubble from the Program has been in the works since 2009 when Viaduct, also demolished due to its inability to the Washington State Legislature voted to replace withstand a major earthquake, was a “watchdog suggestion,” in the Environmental Impact see TUNNEL page 10 WSDOT photo Statement, she said. Crews cleaned about 250,000 sq. ft. WSDOT photo inside the tunnel to remove decades of automobile exhaust. They also removed the tunnel’s mechanical and electrical systems. They will continue to install sewer lines and conduct other utility work. For the fill project, trucks haul rubble from the Viaduct to Terminal 25 on the Duwamish River for processing. Rebar is removed from the concrete, then the concrete is put through a crusher. “Rubble, baseball sized or less, is then trucked to the Battery Street Tunnel,” Newborn said. “Side dump trucks move the reprocessed concrete to a hopper above the tunnel’s old ventilation grates.” The hopper contains water sprayers and rotates as it pours its contents into the tunnel to prevent dust. Inside the tunnel, the rubble falls into piles which crews spread and then compact with a vibratory roller. It is estimated it will take roughly 2,400 truckloads — approximately 74,000 tons of rubble — to fill the tunnel Crews are filling in the sloped approach to the north end of the Battery Street Tunnel. The goal is to raise the ground to the surThe task will take about three months to rounding grade so Seventh Avenue North (formerly Aurora Avenue North) can be rebuilt between Harrison Street and Denny. complete. Once the fill material is 7 ft. from The new street will include new crossings at John and Thomas streets.