D.C. Water christened the tunnel boring machine Chris, after Christopher Allen. He was assistant director of the tunnel project and passed away last year. (Photo by Jacob Fenston / WAMU)

The next phase of a project to keep sewage out of the Anacostia River will soon get underway. It’s part of a network of massive tunnels being built by D.C. Water to collect stormwater and sewage overflow until it can be treated.

The new tunnel will run 27,000 feet, or about five miles, north from RFK Stadium to Bloomingdale. D.C. Water held a christening and blessing ceremony on Thursday for the huge tunnel boring machine that will do the digging. D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh smashed a bottle of bubbly on the machine, and then as she headed off to a hearing, wondered aloud how to explain the champagne on her clothes.

“You might be interested to know that machine weighs 650 tons, and we’re going to lower it down in one piece,” said Shane Yanagisawa, project manager for this tunnel. He said the machine will be lowered into place next week. It will chew through about 50 feet a day, going right under some of the busiest parts of the city, before reaching Bloomingdale. But most of us will never notice it, even if it’s right under our feet.

“We’ll be typically about 100 to 160 feet deep under the ground and it’s soft ground so you’re not going to feel the vibrations of the ground as it’s excavating,” said Yanagisawa.

The tunnel is supposed to be finished in late 2022. It will prevent 98 percent of sewage overflows into the Anacostia River. The first phase of the project opened in March, and has already kept 1.4 billion gallons of sewage and rainwater out of the river.

The Anacostia is cleaner than it has been in many decades. The Anacostia Watershed Society recently awarded the river a passing grade on its annual report card for the first time ever.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.