A massive tunnel-boring machine (TBM) that will be used in the construction of the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line project is being delivered by rail and truck from the manufacturer in Ontario to the north tunnel portal area in Port Moody, B.C.

The TBM will bore a two-kilometre tunnel that will run west of Barnet Highway in Port Moody to south of Kemsley Avenue in Coquitlam. The project will create a rapid transit connection between Coquitlam and Vancouver.

Due to its size and weight, the machine is being shipped in pieces, and will be assembled at a specially built launch site. Assembly of the tunnel-boring machine will take approximately three months, beginning in December. The TBM is 85 metres long and 10 metres in diameter. The first piece, called the cutter head, weighs 130 tonnes.

Tunnel construction is expected to start in February 2014. Moving an average of eight metres a day, the TBM will take about a year to build the tunnel.