WSDOT: Ready to restart Bertha this week

SEATTLE (AP) — State transportation officials say they are getting ready to restart the tunnel-boring project in downtown Seattle.

The Washington Department of Transportation says the machine digging the tunnel will be ready to restart sometime in the next week.

The state says the giant rotary drill, known as Bertha, will have to be stopped periodically to allow it to cool off, since the machine has a tendency to overheat.

Transportation officials do not have an estimate of how long it will take the tunnel boring machine, known as Bertha, to cut through 20 feet of concrete.

The machine first overheated more than a year ago and has moved only a few feet since then.