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Inspections done in June of 2002 showed significant damage to Seattle's seawall had been done by wood-chewing crustaceans known as Gribbles. The seawall supports Alaskan Way and the fill soil upon which the viaduct is built. If the seawall fails, it could lead to permanent damage to the viaduct, Alaskan Way, as well as property and buildings adjacent to Alaskan Way.
What are "Gribbles" - *
http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Apr02/2648.html
Gribbles are tiny almost microscopic marine creatures, which have found their place in the world -- they bore into wood, attacking ships and destroying docks, in their search for food and shelter. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. The damage done by gribbles ends up costing hundreds of millions of dollars each year, but their wood boring activities aren't all-bad. In fact, the world would be a very different place without the gribble. Paul Boyle is the director of the Osborne Laboratories of Marine Science.
"They're very important in the ocean. Most people don't think about it, but lots of wood ends up in our rivers and estuaries - and if we didn't have these animals to break down the wood, our estuaries and beach areas would be covered with wood from long history of wood floating down rivers - or storms throwing logs and things back up on the beaches."
On land, the degradation of wood is carried out principally by fungi, but because this kind of decay isn't as active in the ocean environment -- there the gribble's role becomes even more important.
"They're very small, but they're very abundant. What happens in the oceans and in our estuarine areas is that the gribbles take on a much larger role in reducing wood to smaller particles that bacteria and other microorganisms can then continue to degrade. So they've filled a niche in the ocean that's assumed by other organisms in the forest."
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Mayor Greg Nickels announced today that recent inspections done on the Alaskan Way Seawall have revealed significant damage to the supporting structure by wood lice.
The mayor invited news photographers to see damaged revealed by a test pit dug on Tuesday. Engineers found destruction to structural timbers from Gribbles, underwater crustaceans with 7 pairs of legs and 4 pairs of mouthparts, has caused extensive damage to ships, docks, and in this instance, the relieving platform against the seawall and underneath Alaskan Way. The damage found in several places means that the seawall's vulnerability to an earthquake, already a concern, is even greater than people realized.
"This new evidence should end any doubt about the need and urgency to replace the seawall and the Viaduct," the mayor said. "We learned from the Nisqually earthquake that the Viaduct and seawall are extremely vulnerable to a seismic event, and now we have evidence of structural damage to the seawall. This is a clear threat to public safety, our region transportation network and a critical element or our economic infrastructure. We must get started on a plan to rebuild this corridor."
Construction of the 7,000-floot-long seawall that separates Puget Sound from the waterfront area was completed 67 years ago.
"New Critter" for the day...
OmarD
Got "Gribbles"? 
