It looks like a jet engine, but it's actually an 11-ton microtunneling machine. "It digests the material and is able to eat rocks and a few things," said Franco Coluccio, contractor.

And a microtunneling machine might be in that range or the $2- to $3-million range," Gasmovic says. While the cost-savings of auger boring machines is a definite attraction, being able to install a ...

It was the longest microtunneling project in the United States by tunneling 25 feet below the bottom of Lake Erie’s shale and clay for a total of almost 4,000-feet for the 60-inch pipe.