On April 5, Jumbo Shipping completed transport of the world’s largest tunnelling complex Bertha. This outsized cargo was discharged in Seattle shipped to the city by Fairpartner vessel.
The tunnel boring complex had been built at Hitachi Zosen Corporation works in Japan. When assembled, Bertha will measure 17 meters in diameter and almost 100 meters in length. The unit will be used in construction of SR99 tunnel in downtown Seattle. It is planned to put the tunnel into operation in 2015. The machine got its name after Bertha Knight Landes, the first Seattle’s female mayor.
Prior to load-out on board the ship, this monster worth 80 million dollars and 5-storey-building high was disassembled into 41 pieces of cargo with the total weight of 7,777 thousand tons. It is just enough to say that the unit’s heaviest structure – the cutterhead – weighs 900 tons.