Digging for Seattle's Highway 99 tunnel has resumed six weeks after a sinkhole prompted the state to suspend work. That suspension has been conditionally lifted for 160 feet to provide enough space for the contractor to lay 25 more 6.5-foot rings that will form the walls of the four-lane tube.
A state review committee has approved a plan by contractors to improve how soil is monitored as it flows through the giant cutting face and out the rear of the tunnel-boring machine.
Contractors content that the suspension after the sinkhole occurred was "wrongful and unjustified" and they intend to bill the state for million of dollars in delays.