Move aside, earth beneath Seattle. Here comes some hard rock.
Seattle Public Utilities has announced that a tunnel boring machine that will be used to carve a path for the city’s Ship Canal Water Quality Project has been named Mudhoney, after the longtime grunge band.
The moniker beat out more than 1,200 submissions for names submitted by the community to become a finalist. It then received more than 30,000 votes to eclipse a few more, including Sir Digs-A-Lot, an appreciation of iconic rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, as well as Daphne, Molly the Mole and Boris the Plunger.
Band members unveiled the specially painted machine, by artist Devin Finley, in a ceremony complete with video, below:
Mudhoney will get to work this summer as Seattle Public Utilities and the King County Wastewater Treatment Division start 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.
Time lapse of artist Devin Finley painting @mudhoney on the @SeattleSPU Ship Canal Water Quality Project's Tunnel Boring Machine. ???? It's beautiful… https://t.co/ONXa4N0bDu
— Sub Pop Records (@subpop) April 12, 2021
