The newest TBM's name is announced.
Photo: Zvika Tishler
Suffering Sappho! Tunnel digger named '"Wonder Woman" in honor of Gal Gadot'
Israel's minister of transport responds to Lebanon's decision to ban the new superhero film by naming the fourth tunnel boring machine digging the future Red Line after the Amazonian heroine.
Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz has responded to the ban imposed by the Lebanese government's banning the film "Wonder Woman" on the grounds that its star, Gal Gadot, is Israeli by naming the fourth digging machine cutting the subway tunnels in Tel Aviv "Wonder Woman."
The tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are large rotating cylinders that dig a circular path. The TBMs are about 115 meters long with a 7.5-meter diameter, and they weigh 700 tons. The machines are equipped with a drilling head akin to the "Mutant Module" featured in the 1987 animated television series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"I decided to call the TBM 'Wonder Woman' in honor of Gal Gadot, the first Israeli heroine in Hollywood cinema with an international reputation that succeeded in conquering the whole world," Katz said. The name is given in the spirit of miners' tradition, which gives the mining machines the names of leading women.
Yisrael Katz at the Wonder Woman naming ceremony (Photo: Zvika Tishler)
The three other TBMs operating in the Tel Aviv region are called Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher and Rosa Parks. The machine to be named after the DC Comics heroine will begin its mission in the coming days.
It will dig a tunnel from the Kiryat Aryeh neighborhood in Petah Tikva, and three kilometers on, it will meet Rosa Parks, who began digging last week at an old shaft in Ramat Gan. Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher continue their work at a depth of about 30 meters below the streets of Tel Aviv.
(Translated and edited by J. Herzog)
