The tunnel boring machine named “Elsie” for the SkyTrain Millennium Line extension has now begun its journey from the site of Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station in the False Creek Flats towards the site of Arbutus Station in Kitsilano.

It is one of two five-km-long tunnels that will be bored from the staging area next to Emily Carr University of Art & Design, which will double as the station construction footprint after tunnel boring work is fully finished.

While “Elsie” will create the Millennium Line’s eastbound direction tunnel, a second boring machine named “Phyllis” will build the second tunnel for the westbound direction. The assembly process for “Phyllis” began in mid-September, and she will be launched separately this winter.

To mark the occasion, the provincial government did not stage a typical tunnel boring groundbreaking ceremony with dignitaries and media.

The machines are named after Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill and Phyllis Munday — decorated British Columbians who were leaders in engineering and mountaineering.

Each machine has a diameter of six metres and a length of 150 metres. From the tunnel boring pit, they will bore twin tunnels at a pace of about 18 metres a day, with each machine manned by eight to 12 staff around the clock.

If all goes as planned, it will take about one year for each machine to reach the intersection of Cypress Street and West Broadway — the site of a track switch just east of the future Arbutus Station.

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