On the morning of Tuesday, July 31, 2012, the 42 ft. diameter Tunnel Boring Machine 'Harriet' broke through the bedrock at PortMiami, completing the first of two tubes in $1 billion the PortMiami Tunnel.

When it resurfaced Tuesday morning, Harriet had traveled 4,200 feet under Government Cut to create the first of two tunnel chambers.

The completed tunnel will consist of two tubes featuring two lanes each.

Crews officially broke ground on the project two years ago, but digging didn’t start until November 2011. Eight months later, a set of green crosshairs marked the spot where Harriet resurfaced.

After arriving at the Port, Harriet will be partly disassembled, turned around and re-assembled for the trip back to WatsonIsland that will create the second tunnel chamber.

Once completed, 1.5 million trucks a year are expected to travel through the tunnel.

The PortMiami Tunnel project is a public-private partnership between Miami Access Tunnel, FDOT, Miami-DadeCounty and the City of Miami.

The tunnel connects Dodge Island, home of PortMiami, to Watson Island, where Port traffic will flow directly onto I-95 by way of I-395. Bypassing downtown Miami will cut time in transit for cargo movement between PortMiami and logistics service providers.

The project is on schedule for completion in August of 2014.

Check out this cool video from the Travel Channel below!

::

::

::

::

::

::

::

::