Seattle’s deep musical roots are coming to the surface in the quest to name the tunnel boring machine that will be used in the city’s Ship Canal Water Quality Project.
After receiving more than 1,200 submissions for names from the community, Seattle Public Utilities and King County have narrowed the field to five finalists. Voting by the public opened this week and will run through the end of March.
The potential names to be tied to Seattle’s latest feat of engineering include Mudhoney, a nod to the legendary Seattle band that was a key part of the city’s grunge scene, and Sir Digs-A-Lot, in appreciation of iconic rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot. “We like big drills and we cannot lie,” it reads in the description next to the name.
Others in the running are Daphne, Molly the Mole and Boris the Plunger.
“There are so many creative geniuses among you, with wonderful puns and thoughtful names, that it was difficult to narrow the choices down to just a handful,” SPU said.
Seattle Public Utilities and the King County Wastewater Treatment Division will start this summer on a 2.7-mile long, 18-foot, 10-inch-diameter storage tunnel, running beneath several neighborhoods, as part of the Ship Canal Water Quality Project. The ultimate goal, by 2025, is to keep more than 75 million gallons of sewage and polluted stormwater, on average each year, from entering the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Salmon Bay and Lake Union.
SPU says it will announce the name winner in April.
