QUIZ: Which tunnel boring machine are you?

So Buzzfeed won't create our buzzquiz ideas. No biggie. We made our own. Just scroll down and click "Let's Play!" to get started.

HISTORY: Why are tunnel boring machines named, and why are they named after women?

Yesterday, our tunnel boring machine Mackenzie—who has been disassembled for more than a month but keeps right on tweeting—received a great question from a follower:

Are all tunnel boring machines named after women? Why?@MomChungtheTBM @BerthaDigsSR99 @BigAlmatheTBM @LadyBirdTBM @MackenzieTBM
— Kimble McCraw (@kimblem) December 12, 2013

With a little help and a link shared by @HMMnews, we were able to find the answer. WNYC's Derek Wang reported earlier this year, covering Seattle's TBM Bertha, that "the tradition and practice of naming tunneling machines dates back to the earliest mining traditions" including devotions to patron saints of safety of underground workers.

LOOK: Mackenzie, now in pieces, awaits a resurrection

It is finished.

Mackenzie—the 1,500-ton tunnel boring machine that once spanned more than three football fields in total length—now rests in hundreds of pieces in the cold December Bratenahl air.

Since finishing her three-mile journey digging the Euclid Creek Tunnel back in August, she has been meticulously disassembled and brought to the surface, cataloged, and placed in storage where she began her journey in 2012, at a site known as Nine Mile Creek.

VIDEO: Kids news program Newsdepth goes deep with Mackenzie, how sewers work

Mackenzie dug her way into hundreds of Ohio schools late last month.

After our tunnel boring machine Mackenzie finished digging the 18,000-foot-long Euclid Creek Tunnel in August, she was brought to the surface piece by piece, and a school news program featured her accomplishment in September.

The clip above is from the September 18 Ideastream program Newsdepth, a weekly news program for Ohio students in grades three through eight. Here's the complete half-hour episode.

PIC: A machine designed to dig tunnels is gonna get dirty. Here's how dirty.

When our tunnel boring machine Mackenzie finished digging the Euclid Creek Tunnel late last month, she did so on-line, ahead of schedule, and under budget.

It's likely some of the money she saved will go towards a new paint job.

NEWS: Boring hasn't been this exciting for a long time as Mackenzie breaks through

At 1:27 a.m. Wednesday, Mackenzie saw a light she hadn't seen in more than a year.

Mackenzie, the 1,500-ton tunnel boring machine drilling the three-mile-long Euclid Creek Tunnel 200 feet under Cleveland, broke through the shale at shaft 5, marking the end of her boring—but very exciting—journey.

While the tunnel boring machine is finished, the Euclid Creek Tunnel still has much work ahead. The tunnel will not be complete until 2015 as the lining and ongoing preparation is complete. When finished, the Euclid Creek Tunnel—one of seven huge Project Clean Lake tunnels—will hold 60 million gallons of sewage and stormwater and reduce pollution entering Lake Erie.

Phew. #neorsdECT pic.twitter.com/OOMfNRFmJC
— Mackenzie (@MackenzieTBM) August 22, 2013

It's official! @MackenzieTBM has completed her 3 mile journey, 200 ft underground for @neorsd's #euclidcreektunnel pic.twitter.com/UmWtJoI1ca
— Kellie Rotunno (@KellieRotunno) August 22, 2013

Video and details will be added as they become available.

TUNNEL: Mackenzie's hitting the home stretch

A rumbling journey of more than 18,000 feet is nearing completion.

As of 9:00 this evening, the yellow box in the map above is the live location of Mackenzie, the tunnel boring machine digging our Euclid Creek Tunnel 200 feet under Cleveland. The shaft visible at the end of the blue line is where she will exit the tunnel, the corner of Nottingham and St. Clair Avenue.

Mackenzie's journey will be ending soon as she is approaching the end of her tunnel trek, a project that broke ground in 2011. The Euclid Creek Tunnel is a nearly three-mile-long 24-foot-wide sewer tunnel that will be capable of holding more than 52 million gallons of sewage and stormwater when completed.

We'll be tweeting updates and posting pics on our Facebook page as the concluding days approach.

HOLLYWOOD: Here's our pitch, 4 films, 4 genres, 1 common theme: Clean water. And us.

From superheroes to sports dramas, Hollywood has made Cleveland home this summer and we're loving it.

Sure, we offered a plant tour to Captain America and guests (the offer still stands, BTW), but it got us thinking, "Would Hollywood find our unsung work worthy of the silver screen?"

To get that conversation started, we wanted to pitch a few plot lines that were rooted in our clean-water work—but had touches of drama, or villainy, or romance that just may appeal to some key movie-going demographics.

So picture this...

VIDEO: Not your average daily commute, WKYC visits our construction project 200 feet underground

Many Americans take the train or ride an elevator to work. These, however, are a bit more unconventional.

WKYC's Chris Tye visited our Euclid Creek Tunnel shaft site at Nine Mile Creek last week, and Bob Auber, Doug Gabriel, and Kellie Rotunno took him on a journey few people ever get to make as he visited our tunnel boring machine at work hundreds of feet underground.




The Euclid Creek Tunnel is an 18,000-foot-long 24-foot-wide sewer tunnel being constructed 200 feet under Cleveland. This is just one of several huge projects that are part of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's 25-year Project Clean Lake program intended to reduce pollution in Lake Erie.

You can follow our Mackenzie on Twitter, too:

Home videos from last year. Looks like @wallywaterdrop was playing with iMovie again. youtu.be/q2nk2-tdJ_0 #neorsdECT

— Mackenzie (@MackenzieTBM) May 1, 2013

BY THE NUMBERS: Mackenzie's a machine that's anything but boring

Mackenzie is the name of the huge tunnel digger that will burrow the route of the Euclid Creek Tunnel, a major piece of our Project Clean Lake efforts. Here are some of the stats about the project and the equipment.

About the Euclid Creek Tunnel

The Euclid Creek Tunnel is a $197 million project that will capture combined sewage (a mixture of wastewater and stormwater) and store it until it can be pumped out and treated at the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Euclid Creek Tunnel—located approximately 200 feet below ground—will be 24 feet in diameter and nearly three miles long when complete. It will hold 52 million gallons of combined sewage at a time.

What is the purpose of the tunnel boring machine?

A tunnel boring machine, or TBM, cuts through rock. This is the piece of equipment used to excavate the 18,000-foot long tunnel. This TBM is “single pass,” which means that after it cuts through the bedrock, it also places lining segments into place so that the tunnel is fully lined and watertight. It will cut a path 27 feet in diameter and, when the lining segments are in place and grouted, the finished diameter of the tunnel will be 24 feet.

EUCLID CREEK TUNNEL: Mackenzie prepares to make her three-mile journey

The cutterhead for Ohio’s largest tunnel boring machine, named “Mackenzie,” will begin its descent into Shaft 1 of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Euclid Creek Tunnel on Friday, June 1. That morning, public officials and local media professionals will visit the Sewer District’s construction site in Bratenahl for an up-close and personal look at this impressive piece of machinery.

We will post photos of the equipment and crowd before Mackenzie enters the access shaft. We also will cover the event as the 300,000 pound cutter head is lifted by a crane and lowered 200 feet underground. Mackenzie will not be seen aboveground again until 2014 when nearly three miles of the Euclid Creek Tunnel is mined and she emerges near the intersection of Nottingham Road and St. Clair Avenue.

TUNNEL: I love it when a TBM comes together.

Piece by piece, the gigantic tunnel digger that will burrow the underground route for the Sewer District's Euclid Creek Tunnel is arriving on site in Cleveland.

The behemoth is known as a tunnel boring machine, or TBM, and it will take several truckloads and a few more weeks to assemble.

The photo above shows the five primary pieces of the cutterhead. They will be welded together to create a large circle which will spin at the front of the TBM and do most of the tunneling work through the rocky underground.

Here is a photo of the same unit when it was preassembled for testing in February:

 

It was disassembled for transport, shipped from overseas, and is being trucked in pieces to Cleveland. It's quite a journey, but it takes a lot of equipment to dig an 18,000-foot tunnel 200 feet underground. The Euclid Creek Tunnel is one of seven tunnels that will be constructed under our Project Clean Lake program.

We'll share more details as assembly continues into May.

Photos courtesy NEORSD Director of Engineering & Construction Kellie Rotunno.