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Big Breakthrough For Brenda, Seattle's Other Boring Machine

caption: Brenda arrives at the planned University District light rail station.
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Brenda arrives at the planned University District light rail station.
KUOW Photo/Carolyn Adolph

Brenda punched through the wall on Friday.

She’s the boring machine that cut a light rail tunnel from Northgate to Roosevelt and now has made it to the future station in Seattle's University District.

Brenda broke through at the planned light rail station shortly before noon on Friday. She now faces a round of maintenance before continuing to the future light rail station at Husky Stadium. That station opens early next year.

Transit riders are expected to be able to travel from downtown to Northgate on light rail by 2021.

The tunnel project along the Seattle waterfront remains stalled. The boring machine in that project, named Bertha, is expected to start chewing through bedrock again at the end of December.

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