Courtesy of Caltrans and Kiewit Construction, we were invited along on a media tour of the tunnel dig site today. After grinding and blasting through a soft granite layer, the excavators and their carbide-steel road header will encounter a much harder layer of sandstone in the middle of the mountain, and then an unpredictable layer of mudstone, before breaking through on the north side, where the Disney Company is busy building a gigantic bridge across Shamrock Ranch to bring Highway 1 up to the mouth of the north portal. Vast quantities of rock and dirt are being dislodged and moved to a giant pit on the southern end of the project. Nothing will be trucked away, to the relief of Pacifica motorists who were dreading highway gridlock. Julia Scott of Media News Group will file a full report on today's visit, which she will kindly share with us for posting on this site. Meanwhile, take a gander at our pictures in the Devil's Slide Tunnel Dig photo album (left sidebar).
JOHN MAYBURY
Comments