Highway 99 contractors said Tuesday they expect the costs to repair and restart tunnel machine Bertha to reach at least $125 million.

Chris Dixon, project director for Seattle Tunnel Partners, mentioned the figure during a briefing Tuesday to The Seattle Times’ Editorial Board, which is responsible for writing and choosing opinion pieces.

However, the $125 million isn’t a hard figure, and who will pay is yet to be determined.

That amount is 1 1/2 times the $80 million STP paid for the machine, completed in 2012 by Hitachi Zosen in Osaka, Japan.

Dixon said the $125 million was based on restarting Bertha by Sept. 1, which was STP’s earlier, optimistic goal.