WA Supreme Court Rules Coverage Excluded for Washington Bridge Tunnel Delays

Insurance companies don’t have to reimburse Washington state for the two years drivers couldn’t use the new Highway 99 tunnel, as a result of the boring machine Bertha’s breakdown during construction, the Washington State Supreme Court has ruled.

In a unanimous decision released Thursday morning, the justices rejected the state’s argument that delays in the tunnel project were a type of physical damage that fell under the insurance policy.

Justices sent the case back to lower courts for insurers, contractors and the state to argue further over other kinds of damages.

For the people of Washington state, who funded the Highway 99 tunnel project mainly through gas taxes, the ruling has no immediate impact. So far, taxpayers aren’t on the hook for tunnel overruns, because the state won a separate jury trial in which contractors sought hundreds of millions of dollars.

The world’s biggest tunnel drill, named after former Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes (1926 to 1928), overheated next to Pier 48 on Dec. 6, 2013, and didn’t resume digging until 2016 after a massive repair effort. It then broke through next to Seattle Center in April 2017. The two-mile, double-decker tunnel opened to traffic Feb. 4, 2019.