Akron Kicking Off Contest to Name the City’s Tunnel-Boring Machine

Beacon Journal Staff Report

Akron is holding a contest for residents to name the tunnel-boring machine that will excavate a giant 6,000-foot-long sewer tunnel under downtown Akron.

According to tunneling tradition, a tunneling machine cannot start work until a name is given.

The machine is traditionally named after a woman as a sign of good luck for the project ahead.

“We hope the citizens of Akron will engage with us in making this a fun part of the project,” said Mayor Don Plusquellic in a statement. “Wherever I go around the world, these large tunneling projects have names for their machines that recognize local icons or the community’s historic individuals.”

Seattle named its machine Bertha.

In Washington, D.C., it was Lady Bird plus Nannie and Lucy.

In Cleveland, it was Mackenzie. Columbus opted for Marsha.

Overseas, London went with Elizabeth and Victoria and St. Petersburg, Russia, Martina.

“We want people to think about this being the largest construction project in Akron history and come up with a name that is meaningful and that will honor someone who has meant something to this city,” Plusquellic said in a news release.

Contest details are available at www.akronwaterways
renewed.com.

Akron announced the contest for its residents on Saturday at the Blue Heron Homecoming open house at the city’s sewage treatment plant off Akron-Peninsula Road next to the Cuyahoga River.

The tunnel will be 27 feet in diameter and will stretch from West Exchange Street near Akron Children’s Hospital to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail near Memorial Parkway. It will cost $300 million.

It is part of a system of two tunnels, 10 storage basins, seven sewer separation projects and improvements to the city’s sewage treatment plant that are required under a federal consent decree to reduce overflows from Akron’s sewer system. That work will cost about $1.4 billion.

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