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.

LOOK: "What are those cranes popping up over the trees along I-90?"

What's all that work along I-90? Click for a larger view. (Image originally posted August 2013)

Seeing underground work from the air gives huge projects a whole new perspective.

When you see our cranes above treetops along I-90, you know work is happening but it's tough to know what that work is. Here's an aerial view of three huge Project Clean Lake projects going on at this location we call Nine Mile Creek in Bratenahl.

Those three projects include the Euclid Creek Tunnel, a Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station, and an electrical substation to power both the work and the resulting infrastructure.

LOOK: Like some kind of futuristic dissection, photos tell the story of @MackenzieTBM's disassembly

Today we received this amazing set of images that show our tunnel boring machine Mackenzie as she continues to be disassembled 200 feet underground.

Last month, the 27-foot-tall Mackenzie finished digging the Euclid Creek Tunnel, a journey that spanned three miles under Cleveland and Lake Erie. The tunnel won't be officially complete until 2015, but Mackenzie has done her job. She's being transported back to Bratenahl in pieces where she began her dig in 2012.

These photos show Mackenzie up close as she is being disassembled piece by enormous piece.

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.

EVENT: One journey ends, another begins as Mackenzie will make her way back to the surface

 

Mac's on her way back to the surface starting Monday.

More than one year ago, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s tunnel boring machine, named “Mackenzie,” began excavating the Euclid Creek Tunnel. Mackenzie has successfully mined and lined 18,000 feet of 24-foot diameter tunnel 200 feet below ground, and her work is complete ahead of schedule and under budget.

On Monday, September 9, Mackenzie’s 150-ton, 27-foot diameter cutter head will be lifted out of the exit shaft near the intersection of Nottingham Road and St. Clair Avenue. Later that day, the cutter head will return to the main construction site in Bratenahl.

UPDATE: Watch the video of Mac's cutter head returning to the surface in the clip above.

You can #TrackMac's progress Monday by following our @neorsd and @WallyWaterdrop Twitter accounts for live #TrackMac tweets from the site.

LIST: Top 5 songs for saying goodbye to a 3,000,000-pound tunnel boring machine

Have we really come to the end of the road? Boyz II Men knows how we feel.

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

Our tunnel boring machine Mackenzie has worked her way deep into our hearts as she nears the end of her 18,000-foot road: drilling the Euclid Creek Tunnel 200 feet below Cleveland in an effort to protect our Great Lake from millions of gallons of pollution. She's leaving an amazing legacy behind her as the project nears completion.

How can you really say goodbye to that? She's not done yet, and we'll keep tweeting and updating her status in the coming weeks. But we know it's only a matter of time until the two of us part ways.

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

PIC: Mackenzie will soon be looking up at Lake Erie

Mackenzie's knocking on Lake Erie's door.

The tunnel boring machine that is digging our Euclid Creek Tunnel project—an 18,000-foot journey 200 feet under Cleveland's east side—is named Mackenzie. And in a few short weeks, the bed of Lake Erie will be 160 feet above her head.

The photo above marks the GPS-located position of the tunnel boring machine as of Monday. Moving from west to east (or left to right in the image) at a pace of 80 feet per day, Mackenzie should begin crossing under the lake bed within the next few weeks. The total length of the Euclid Creek Tunnel that will burrow beneath Lake Erie will be about 3,000 feet.

UPDATES: Stormwater progress, Director's contract extended, Mackenzie moving forward

Three significant items were discussed at today's Board of Trustees meeting, all of which showed signs of big things to come.

Our regional stormwater management program language, known as Title V [opens PDF in a new window] was approved by Trustees with plans to implement the program beginning in 2013. This is following a 30-day public-comment period. Some of the most notable changes in our plan include increased cost-sharing for communities: 25% of all fees collected from the program will be returned to each community for local stormwater-related needs. We discussed this in recent Plain Dealer feature.

Executive Director Julius Ciaccia also had his contract extended through 2016. Trustees specifically drew attention to accomplishments such as progress in stormwater management, engineering practices improvements, and implementation of the 25-year Project Clean Lake consent decree.

Lastly, during our monthly project report, we heard that Mackenzie, our 300-foot-long tunnel boring machine will begin drilling by this time next month. Mackenzie is burrowing the 18,000-foot-long Euclid Creek Tunnel on Cleveland's east side, starting her journey in Bratenahl.

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.