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Plans to fix the seals of the giant tunnel boring machine nicknamed 鈥淏ertha鈥� are coming into focus, but a repair job on the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel project in Seattle will take at least six months, officials announced Friday.

Bertha hit a snag Dec. 6, and both聽Seattle Tunnel Partners (the general contractor) and聽Hitachi Zosen Corp.聽(the machine鈥檚 manufacturer) have been seeking ways to restart the $3.1 billion project. STP has narrowed those plans down to three options, and all consist of digging a vertical shaft in front of the machine, and then driving the machine forward into the shaft and making the needed repairs.

鈥淭hey have decided to go in from the surface,鈥� said Laura Newborn, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation. 鈥淭he preferred method is to build a box in front of Bertha 120 feet deep and 80 feet wide. Giant piles on either side would stabilize the soil put in a year ago.鈥�

STP will announce its plans within the next two weeks, Newborn said.

An expert review panel, appointed by Washington鈥檚 governor, released a report Thursday stating that crews can make up at least five months of lost time. The project鈥檚 estimated completion, which had originally been slated for Dec. 31, 2015, has been pushed back to at least the first or second quarter of 2016, according to the report.

If the project is not completed by Jan. 2, 2016, STP could be docked $50,000 each day (up to $75 million) thereafter until it is. The company also would lose $100,000 per day (up to $25 million) in potential bonus money for not completing the tunnel prior to Nov. 13, 2016, according to the report.

Other key findings of the report included:

鈥� Toll revenues have not been secured 鈥� Legislative direction is still needed to determine an acceptable amount of traffic diverted onto city streets as a result of tolls and how those funds would be allocated.

鈥� Contingency funds are likely to be sufficient, provided that expected savings on individual projects are achieved. The project鈥檚 contingency funds 鈥渟hould be vigorously protected,鈥� according to the report. Cost savings should be put back into those funds.

鈥� Relations between WSDOT聽(the project鈥檚 owner) and STP have been 鈥渟everely strained鈥� by several factors, according to the report. Those include a perceived slowness in STP鈥檚 response to issues, WSDOT鈥檚 quickness to make issues public and a tendency to assign blame rather than work together to solve problems. WSDOT鈥檚 executive management had declared STP to be in 鈥渂reach of contract,鈥� according to the report.

Recommendations include holding regularly scheduled, open forums for discussion of technical issues. STP would hold final sway over whether to implement suggestions made by WSDOT, the report recommended.

The viaduct was closed over the weekend as crews performed regularly scheduled safety inspections. Workers checked for structural movement of the viaduct and evaluated its foundation.

As a condition of its contract, STP strengthened the portion of the viaduct near the tunnel before boring work began. Additionally, more than 100 monitors were installed on the structure so that its condition could be checked.