Where’s Bertha? Massive Tunnel Machine Gets Back to Work Beneath Seattle (Video)

Puget Sound Business Journal | Jim Hammerand | January 17

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/01/17/bertha-tunnel-machine-seattle-update.html

“The tunnel-boring machine known as Bertha is back at it below Seattle after crews replaced 300 of its nearly 500 cutterhead scrapers, the Washington State Department of Transportation said Tuesday. Tunneling resumed Monday after a 10-day maintenance break with the massive machine about 160 feet below Third Avenue in Belltown. Operated by Seattle Tunnel Partners, the massive machine is about 2,500 feet from the point where it will break through to the surface near the Seattle Center. That means the machine has dug 6,822 feet of the 9,270-foot-long tunnel.”

How Big Data Can Improve Cities and Save Lives: UW and Seattle Brainstorm Solutions on Education, Homelessness, and Transportation

GeekWire | Taylor Soper | January 17

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/big-data-can-transform-cities-save-lives-uw-seattle-brainstorm-solutions-education-homelessness-transportation/

“Using data and analytics to help improve the bottom line is now common practice in the technology and business worlds. But how can city governments use those same techniques and utilization of new information to improve the lives of its constituents? That is the theme of a two-day workshop hosted by the City of Seattle, the University of Washington, and MetroLab, a Washington D.C.-based city-university collaboration that launched as part of the White House’s Smart Cities Initiative in September 2015. The event, called ‘Big Data and Human Services’ and sponsored by Microsoft, Amazon, and Comcast, gathered folks in Seattle from the public and private sectors — people like UW President Ana Mari Cauce; former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire; Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch; and others — to address the opportunities and challenges that come about from the influx of data and the accompanying tools as it relates to improving the quality of cities across the U.S.”

Seattle is Getting Serious About Transit

VOX | David Roberts | January 14

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/14/14222492/seattle-transit

“The folks at Streetfilms have a new video that celebrates Seattle’s recent progress on transit…For years, Seattle has been a transit laggard and something of a comedy of errors, going all the way back to voters famously and fatefully rejecting a rail system in 1970…Around 2014, however, things started changing. That year, Seattle voters approved a ballot measure called ‘Plan C,’ which saved the city’s bus service by raising property taxes, producing $30 million a year. In 2015, voters approved Move Seattle, a nine-year, $930 million levy to fund transportation. And then last year, voters approved the biggie: Sound Transit 3 (ST3), a $54 billion package of light-rail and other transportation investments that extend all the way out through 2039.”

Transit Riders Flock to New Angle Lake Light-Rail Station; Parking Spaces Nearly Full

Seattle Times | Mike Lindblom | January 13

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/transit-riders-flock-to-new-angle-lake-station-park-and-ride-spaces-nearly-full/

“Commuters have been flocking to Sound Transit’s new Angle Lake Station, which is already near its 2018 ridership target, since the grand opening in September. The first counts from there show that an average 2,578 passengers walked onto light-rail trains toward the airport and Seattle, during midweek samplings in October and November. And the station’s 1,120 park-and-ride spaces are 93 percent occupied, spokeswoman Kimberly Reason said. These numbers are very close to the goal of 2,700 weekday boardings, or 5,400 total users, if people returning home are counted.”