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Last week, a tunnel boring machine saw the light of day for the first time in 10 months when it broke through the ground at the future site of the Canada Line Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The machine first began boring the tunnel in June 2006 at Olympic Village Station and since has traveled 1.5 miles. The tunnel is the first to be completed as part of the Canada Line, which will link Vancouver’s Waterfront Centre with Vancouver International Airport. To be fully separated from traffic, the transit-rail line will include 16 stations, two bridges and more than 5.5 miles of tunnels.

The machine now will be disassembled and transported to a worksite near False Creek to bore a second tunnel, which is expected to be complete in spring 2008.

The Canada Line project is being funded by the governments of Canada and British Columbia, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority and Vancouver International Airport Authority.