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Could a tunnel even survive an earthquake above 8.5?

• CamperBob2 11y ago
  The purpose of the tunnel is to provide a better view of Puget Sound for real estate development, not to provide any sort of substitute for the viaduct. We will lose significant traffic capacity and downtown accessibility when the viaduct comes down, tunnel or no tunnel. Engineers have told us that the tunnel will be safer in an earthquake, but then, essentially everything those engineers have told us has been straight out of the Brothers Grimm.
• WildUtah 11y ago
  Yes. Japan engineers tunnels -- one longer than the Chunnel -- to survive 9+ earthquakes and they do. BART was undamaged by the Loma Prieta quake that brought down the Bay Bridge and the Oakland freeway.
  • CamperBob2 11y ago
    The length of the tunnel doesn't have much to do with earthquake survivability, beyond the obvious linear scale factor. What the tunnel is tunneling through has a lot to do with it. Seattle's geology is somewhat different from any of the usual cited examples, as we've learned by watching everyone from journalists to politicians to engineers stand around with dumbfounded looks while the Bertha saga unfolds.