grout to prevent damage to the adjacent Seattle City Light building. Boring on both tunnels was stopped in early January 1988, when a pocket of wet sand was encountered before the planned 90-degree turn onto Pine Street. Metro and tunnel contractors Atkinson/Dillingham, who had scheduled tunnel excavation for completion in mid-January, closed 3rd Avenue between Pike and Pine streets and installed 40 drilled wells to remove water from the sand pocket in February. Digging resumed on the western tunnel on March 14, and the TBM reached Westlake station on April 9, completing the first of the two tunnels. The eastern tunnel was completed a month later on May 18, allowing for parts of the TBMs to be salvaged and the steel outer shells to be buried in the tunnel. The Pine Street segment of the tunnel was planned to be dug cut-and-cover from the surface. In preparation for utility relocation work on Pine Street, Metro moved 36 bus routes serving the corridor to other east–west streets in February 1987. On April 27, excavation of the tunnel began with the closure of Pine Street, and its offramp to Interstate 5, to automobile traffic between 3rd Avenue and Boren Avenue. Workers finished digging in late August, allowing the project to progress to concrete pouring for the roadway. Pine Street was briefly re-opened for the Christmas shopping season beginning November 1 at the request of downtown merchants, with a temporary surface laid over backfill for automobiles and pedestrians. On January 4, the street was closed to automobile traffic once again, along with the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street and the Pike Street offramp of I-5, to install utility lines and a permanent roadway. Pine Street was fully reopened to traffic on November 1, 1988, coinciding with the completion of Westlake Park and the Westlake Center shopping mall, a year ahead of schedule. By October 1988, Metro reported that 53% of major construction was complete and anticipated that the tunnel would be completed in May 1990 and opened for service in September 1990. Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and City Council members Paul Kraabel and George Benson recommended a limited opening of the tunnel for the 1990 Goodwill Games to be held in July, but Metro rejected the proposal so that the safety systems of the tunnel could be tested adequately before service began. Testing in the bus tunnel began with a ceremonial