World’s largest boring machine begins digging 2-mile underground tunnel

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Bertha is ready to start digging.

The world’s largest boring machine began drilling a nearly 2-mile highway tunnel underneath Seattle today. She won’t actually hit soil right away and will need to get through an 18-foot thick concrete headwall in the pit she’s been assembled in for the past two months.

Bertha just tweeted a photo of what “looks delicious” to her:

The $80 million machine arrived in Seattle from Japan nearly three months ago in 41 pieces. She’ll now be digging the new two-mile Highway 99 tunnel underneath Seattle along the city’s waterfront.

At 57.5 feet in diameter and more than 300 feet long, Bertha is named after former Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes, the first female mayor of a major U.S. city. She’ll begin digging from SoDo to South Lake Union and a four-lane underground tunnel is scheduled to open by 2016, when the current 60-year-old Alaskan Way Viaduct will be demolished. This is all part of a $3.1 billion project to replace the viaduct.

Bertha’s been tweeting out some nice photos lately, so have a look:

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