Going on right now, the City of Seattle is having an overflow, elongated storage tunnel dug beneath Fremont, from Ballard to Wallingford along the Ship Canal. The Ship Canal Water Quality Project will keep storm water and sewage from entering our waterways during storms – but it will require construction of this holding tank beneath our community where the water can go during extreme weather events.
Over the month of March, Seattle Public Utilities held a public vote on the name of Tunnel Boring Machine that will be digging beneath our feet over the next year. Through a vote that garnered over 35,000 entries, the name selected is:
- MudHoney
Chosen, possibly, as a tribute to the Seattle grunge band that started in the 1980s, the actual foursome performed at the official naming on April 9th, giving the gathered elected officials and executives a performance of their ‘muck-crusted’ rock. A B-roll of the unveiling, and naming, with Mudhoney (both of them,) can be seen on YouTube (click here.)
The MudHoney Tunnel Boring Machine will dig a 2.7 mile long, 18-foot diameter tunnel, that will prevent an average of 75 million gallons of polluted stormwater and sewage from entering Lake Union and the Ship Canal each year. Learn more about the Ship Canal Water Quality Project on the Seattle.gov website page (click here.)