Confusion forces Sound Transit to re-think names of tunneling machines

It looks like Bertha’s reputation is rubbing off on her fellow Seattle boring machines, and they don’t like it.

Sound Transit’s two boring machines, nicknamed Brenda and Pamela, are going to be named tunnel-boring machine 1 and tunnel-boring machine 2, The Seattle Times reports.

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The reason, according to the Times, is because Sound Transit is worried about people mixing up the machines responsible for drilling light rail tunnels with the much larger machine that, up until recently, has been plagued with problems in downtown Seattle. Sound Transit spokesperson Kimberly Reason told the Times there has been “a lot of confusion” between the machines.

And Sound Transit doesn’t necessarily want that confusion. Bertha, part of a project that is more than two years behind schedule, has had to be rescued, and reportedly caused two sinkholes since it began digging. One of those holes was enough for Gov. Jay Inslee to call for all work related to the machine to be stopped while the contractor checked its safety protocols.

Though Sound Transit’s machines haven’t been completely free of problems &#8211 Pamela stopped working for six weeks before resuming, for example &#8211 the link light rail project to Northgate is reportedly on schedule.

Sound Transit boring machine Brenda breaks through a wall in the Roosevelt neighborhood in 2015.