Last Friday, we marked the start of tunnel boring on Capitol Hill for the light rail subway with a full run-down of the digging to come. A week later, we have the first update on just how far the tunnel boring machine has progressed in its 7 days of travel.

81 feet.

Only 3,615 feet ’til Pine. That’s the word from Sound Transit rep Rhonda Dixon who says the TBM is currently beneath the Bonney Watson parking lot and headed downhill toward I-5 and the extraction point near the Paramount Theater. Once crews and systems settle in, the pace of tunneling will pick up.

You can tune into the live cam to watch the construction site and see the spoils (pictured) piling up. That’s legit Capitol Hill mud, there, destined for dump sites in far flung reaches of the planet like Snohomish.

Here’s an update from Sound Transit on the work at the future Broadway station site and the increase in truck traffic and work hours associated with the tunneling. If you have any questions or concerns with the construction at the Broadway site, call Sound Transit’s 24-hour hotline at (888) 298-2395.

U-Link construction activity is ramping up on Capitol Hill. On Friday, July 8th, the tunnel boring machine (“Brenda”) began churning southward towards downtown where it will meet the existing transit tunnel under Pine Street. Tunneling work is currently occurring on one shift running from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. each weekday. A second shift is scheduled to be added on Monday, July 25th, and it will run from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

As a result of adding the second work shift, there will be an increase in trucking to haul away the dirt. Dump trucks will be operating until 10 p.m. and possibly later. There could also be an increase in noise at the construction site due to the increased activity. To allow the additional construction work, Sound Transit has obtained a variance from the City of Seattle’s nighttime noise restrictions.

Drivers and pedestrians should exercise added caution due to the increased truck traffic.

Near the end of this year, Brenda will arrive under Pine Street near the Paramount Theatre. The TBM will then be taken apart and trucked back to the Capitol Hill construction site, where it will be re-assembled and early next year re-launched to bore the second tunnel.