SEATTLE — Editor's note: The above video is from previous reporting on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project.
Seattle Public Utilities unveiled the final options for the name of the city's new tunnel boring machine. SPU received over 1,200 suggestions when they opened submissions in early March.
The final five the public will get to vote on are Daphne, Molly the Mole, Boris the Plunger, Sir Digs-A-Lot and MudHoney.
Voting for the official name choice will be open until March 31.
The tunnel boring machine will be used to dig a 29 million gallon storage tunnel in Ballard to help reduce sewage overflow when it rains. Stormwater and sewage share the same pipes in parts of Seattle, which can become overwhelmed when it rains, sending excess water, and raw sewage, overflowing into the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Salmon Bay and Lake Union.
The tunnel will be positioned to capture and store excess runoff during storms until it can be pumped out to the West Point treatment plant and processed. It's scheduled to be completed in 2025.
The tunnel-boring machine recently arrived from Germany and is currently being assembled near the pit before it will be lowered into place.