For Fair Use Discussion and Educational Purposes

Revelation 6:15-17 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16. And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?





Now that we know it was an eight-inch steel pipe that brought the world's largest-diameter tunneling machine to a halt up in Seattle, we can no longer fantasize about Bertha unearthing a five-story-tall buried locomotive. But we can look at something almost as fascinating: The other giant holes that are currently being churned through the bedrock below our cities.

With major infrastructure projects underway across the country, chances are very good that something is being hollowed out below your feet at this very moment. Here are some of the largest tunnels currently under construction in the U.S.

Seattle


Until being halted by a steel wellwater casing, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Bertha was digging a two-mile tunnel for the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, repairing a double-Decker highway along the Seattle waterfront that was damaged in the 2001 earthquake. In late December, contractors began drilling wells around Bertha, removing more than 300,000 gallons of water to lower the pressure around the machine so crews could get a closer look at what we'll now call "The Pipe." The project is still scheduled to open in late 2015.

San Francisco
Until being halted by a steel wellwater casing, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Bertha was digging a two-mile tunnel for the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, repairing a double-Decker highway along the Seattle waterfront that was damaged in the 2001 earthquake. In late December, contractors began drilling wells around Bertha, removing more than 300,000 gallons of water to lower the pressure around the machine so crews could get a closer look at what we'll now call "The Pipe." The project is still scheduled to open in late 2015.

That machine you see there is Mom Chung, the adorable TBM that's working on the Central Subway, a $1.5 billion light-rail extension that's the first new subway route for the city's municipal railway (MUNI) in 50 years. Along with Mom Chung's trusty sidekick Big Alma (Chung on southbound, Alma on northbound), the two machines will carve out 1.7 miles of twin tunnels below the existing MUNI and BART lines. The three underground stations and one above-ground station on the route from South of Market to Chinatown, will bring rail service to one of the most densely populated areas in the country. The new line is planned to open in 2019.

New York City




That machine you see there is Mom Chung, the adorable TBM that's working on the Central Subway, a $1.5 billion light-rail extension that's the first new subway route for the city's municipal railway (MUNI) in 50 years. Along with Mom Chung's trusty sidekick Big Alma (Chung on southbound, Alma on northbound), the two machines will carve out 1.7 miles of twin tunnels below the existing MUNI and BART lines. The three underground stations and one above-ground station on the route from South of Market to Chinatown, will bring rail service to one of the most densely populated areas in the country. The new line is planned to open in 2019.

[img[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/193f2r6njmls3jpg/ku-xlarge.jpg[/img]
One of the largest tunnels in the world, City Water Tunnel No. 3, has been under construction for 43 years—43 years! —at a cost of $5 billion. In total, the tunnel is 60 miles long, and at some points travels 500 feet below the ground. The second phase of the tunnel, which supplies drinking water to Manhattan, opened in 2013, with the completion of this cathedral-like space under Central Park, a valve chamber for the system. The Brooklyn-Queens portion of the tunnel will be completed by 2018, ending New York's largest construction project to date.

Las Vegas

Deep below Lake Mead, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is digging a tunnel to its newest "Intake No. 3"—basically, a $800 million straw that will help suck the water out of the lake to augment the municipal water supply, even when lake levels are low. One of the largest and most complicated water projects in the country, the tunnel is three miles long through solid rock. The project has been plagued with problems due to the extremely "unpredictable" geology; in 2010 workers hit a fault zone which flooded the tunnel with water and debris and required them to change course. It should be finished in May of this year.

continue to see rest of underground tunnels:
http://gizmodo.com/8-massive-tunnels-being-built-right-now-under-a-city-ne-1493440920