Watch a 400-Foot-Long Tunneling Machine Break Through a New Downtown L.A. Subway Station

Ted SoquiUncategorized

Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesMetro Los Angeles" data-rightCaption="Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los Angeles">Meet the Los Angeles regional connector tunnel boring machine (TBM) nicknamed Angeli.; Credit: Metro Los AngelesCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesOne hundred ten feet below the surface of downtown Los AngelesCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los Angeles40-foot-long tunnel boring machine was at work.Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesI could feel and hear her thumping and tearing through the soil like an ancient Jurassic beast. You could feel it in your feet.Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesShe was scheduled to arrive at 8:30 a.m. but was running late.Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesSomething tells me Angeli was on her own schedule and no one could really predict what time a 1Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesSomething tells me Angeli was on her own schedule and no one could really predict what time a 1Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los Angelesbut in fact she did.Credit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesFinallyCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesFinallyCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los AngelesmudCredit: Ted Soqui/Metro Los Angeles

Deep below downtown Los Angeles, Angeli is hard at work. She's not an ordinary member of Metro's team; she's a 400-foot-long, 21.6-foot-wide tunnel boring machine (TBM) that has been digging a new Regional Connector under the city. The project kicked off in Little Tokyo four months ago and on Thursday, Angeli's journey ended at the Grand Avenue/Bunker Hill station, where she dramatically broke through her last piece of earth. Check out L.A. Weekly photographer Ted Soqui's photo essay documenting the final stop of Angeli's underground adventure.