Unfortunately it seems that the work associated with big construction projects means big workers’ compensation bills and problems. We’ve talked about the hazards that workers building soccer stadiums in Qatar face, and now there is a story about a tunnel being built in Seattle, WA that has generated $700,000 in workers’ comp claims just in 2015, only one year of the ongoing construction.

This tunnel has been plagued with many problems since construction started. The Alaskan Way Viaduct had been damaged in an earthquake and this new double-decker tunnel was going to replace it. The contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners was chosen to complete the job and they employed a huge drilling machine called Bertha, which broke down in 2013. When the machine broke down and workers had to make their way down to repair the machine, worker injuries increased.

There were 117 injuries between 2012 and 2014, which amounted to $1 million worth of claims. The contractor was cited and fined for chemical burn injuries to their workers. Since one injury was sustained in 2013 and another in 2014, inspectors noted that some of the violations were repeat violations that allowed workers to get injured in the same way as before.

2015 was recorded as another bad year, injury-wise, for this project. In 2015 the total number of workers injured reached 185 and in that year alone workers’ comp claims were estimated to cost $700,000 though that total may rise as some claims from last year are not yet closed. Workers suffered fractures, amputations, sprains, scratches and burns. Seattle Tunnel Partners was fined twice last year for safety violations, though they are contesting the findings. Inspectors said that violations included failure to protect workers from protruding rebar that could have impaled them. Four workers were injured when they were working and a wall of rebar gave way last year.

A spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation, Laura Newborn, said that most of the injuries did not require time away from work. She said that the department’s top priority is the safety of the public, its employees and workers.