In March, the construction team on Metro’s forthcoming Crenshaw/LAX Line lowered a massive tunneling machine into the future site of the Exposition/Crenshaw station. After some assembly and testing, the tunneler—nicknamed Harriet—began boring her way toward the future Martin Luther King Jr. Station in April. By mid-May, she was tunneling beneath the Denny’s on Crenshaw and Coliseum (and tweeting about it).

A new video released by Metro (via its blog The Source) shows a time-lapse of Harriet’s progress so far. According to the video, the intrepid tunneling machine made enough progress within the first month of operation that the entire machine—which is more than the length of a football field—now fits inside the tunnel. Digging at a speed of three inches per minute, Harriet will eventually create two mile-long tunnels that will connect the first three stations on the new line. Construction on the line is expected to be complete by 2019, and Metro hosted a celebration of the project’s halfway point in early May.

• Video: Harriet the Crenshaw/LAX tunneling machine begins digging under Crenshaw Boulevard [The Source]
• Watch a Giant Tunnel-Boring Machine Come Together Under the Future Crenshaw Line [Curbed LA]
• Crenshaw/LAX Line is Halfway Finished [Curbed LA]

Next Up In Crenshaw Line

• LA’s new light rail line won’t open until 2021
• As South LA changes, Destination Crenshaw is ‘absolutely necessary’
• Mixed-use development planned near Crenshaw Line stop at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza
• City looking for ideas to redevelop two Leimert Park parking lots
• Metro awards $15M to Destination Crenshaw
• LA renames Crenshaw/Slauson intersection for Nipsey Hussle