As secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation, I’m addressing concerns voiced in a recent editorial, “Bertha Offers Vital Lessons” (Aug. 14). No one, including WSDOT and Seattle Tunnel Partners, our contractor and owner of Bertha, denies this machine has encountered some obstacles and delay. Bertha is a symbol of how challenging these projects can be and how we must manage them well for taxpayers.
Our overall track record is strong. Since July 2003, WSDOT has completed 355 of 421 projects funded by $16 billion in new transportation investments. Of those, 87 percent were on time and 91 percent were on budget.
Seattle Tunnel Partners is using Bertha to build the State Route 99 tunnel to replace an aging and seismically vulnerable viaduct, which carried 110,000 vehicles through downtown Seattle and past the Port of Seattle, both major contributors to our state’s economy. The tunnel will maintain a north-south alternative to I-5 through Seattle, and the viaduct remains open to traffic during construction.
When managing a $3.1 billion program to build the world’s largest-diameter bored tunnel ($1.9 billion for the tunnel project and the remainder for various projects along the State Route 99 corridor), we will certainly encounter challenges. Knowing there will be challenges, we build contingencies into our schedule and budget. How many people have hired a contractor for a project and had work hit a snag? This project is no different and we planned for it.
What matters in projects of this scale is how they are managed. We set up this contract so that the responsibility to design and operate the machine is Seattle Tunnel’s, not WSDOT’s. This means it is accountable for making sure the machine works and the tunnel is constructed to the standards set in the contract. We must manage through these challenges and work with our contractor while also holding it accountable to the price and schedule outlined in the contract. We haven’t seen any evidence that suggests the state is responsible for the costs or schedule delay associated with the current work stoppage.
Realities, not mistakes
Delays and challenges are not mistakes; they are project realities. A mistake would be if WSDOT scrapped the contract as some have suggested, and left Bertha underground with nearly completed tunnel portals. That would serve no taxpayer well. Moreover, it wouldn’t solve the problem of replacing the aging and seismically vulnerable viaduct.
Mistakes have been made in the past and the current reforms WSDOT is instituting considers the lessons learned to address those mistakes head-on. This is part of the work that I was tasked with when I joined WSDOT in February 2013.
Efficiency and effectiveness in our construction projects — both large and small — is critical. My goal is to improve our internal processes and work with partners to improve shared processes. While we work toward making our projects more efficient, there are some requirements that are required by law and are simply the right thing to do, such as Environmental Impact Statements. These take time, but environmental stewardship and sustainability are priorities shared by many Washingtonians. WSDOT has to find the balance between doing it fast and doing it right. Such change won’t happen overnight.
Let’s not forget there are successes in the viaduct replacement project. Bertha is one part of WSDOT’s effort to build the largest-diameter tunnel in the world under an urban center. She has a big job in front of her and WSDOT has a big job in front of us to manage a tough, complex project and complete our work as quickly and safely as possible.
Lynn Peterson has been Secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation since February 2013.
