“Driller Mike” is the winning name for the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management’s new tunnel-boring machine, the city announced today.
The name is a tribute to Atlanta hip hop artist and activist Killer Mike. It beat out “Peach Beast” and “Scarlett” in a public vote.
The machine will dig a 5-mile-long, 12-foot-wide tunnel to turn Atlanta’s Bellwood Quarry into a reservoir, a project slated to be finished in December 2018.
The “Driller Mike” name was unveiled Sept. 21 at the quarry with a press conference including Killer Mike and Mayor Kasim Reed. The tunnel machine also now has its own Twitter account at @driller_mike, with tweets pretending to speak in the drill’s own voice.