ATLANTA (AP) – Atlanta-based rapper and activist Killer Mike is being honored after a naming contest for a massive 400-foot-long tunnel-boring machine that will enable the city to store a month of water underground.
Atlanta officials announced Wednesday they decided on Driller Mike after reviewing more than 700 online submissions.
The $11.6 million machine will dig a five-mile tunnel starting from a 350-feet deep reservoir, holding 2.4 billion gallons of water in downtown Atlanta.
Watershed Management of Atlanta officials say the project will ensure water supply for the next 100 years.
The $300 million Water Supply Program is expected to be finished in December 2018, with a tunnel running from the former Bellwood Quarry to the Chattahoochee River and Hemphill Water Treatment Plant.