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  • Kala the Viral TikTok ‘Tunnel Girl’ Is Back at It
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Kala the Viral TikTok ‘Tunnel Girl’ Is Back at It

More than a year after her town shut down the underground project, this TikToker now has the documentation needed to keep digging.

By Maggie Roth March 11, 2025 at 12:46 pm

More than a year after her viral project got shut down, the TikTok “Tunnel Girl” has restarted work to dig under her Herndon home. 

On her TikTok account @engineer.everything, the woman, who identifies herself only as Kala, spent months documenting her progress excavating material from under her home. The goal, she explained in videos, was to create a large tunnel — though she does not have professional experience in construction.

In January 2024, Kala announced that Herndon was shutting down her project until she could get the necessary permits.  

Those permits are now all in order, according to a new post on her account. Her video, posted Monday, March 10, shows her receiving a phone call and then unrolling construction plans with a stamp of approval.  

“The next step is for the government to do an inspection of the work that’s already been completed, and I have that scheduled for this coming week,” she says in the video. “There will be some remedial work, even just to be in compliance with my own plans, but the hard part is behind us.”

@engineer.everything A new day has dawned. #engineering #tunnel #mining #minecraft #permits #construction #buildingcodes #tunnelvision #tunnelgirl ♬ Suspenseful and tense orchestra(1318015) – SoLaTiDo

Kala started construction on her tunnel in 2022. Today, she has amassed more than 619,000 followers.  

She told WUSA9 that the tunnel goes down about 30 feet to a small landing area, then there’s another descent about 20 feet. She explained that, if she wants to continue digging farther down, she’ll need to apply for more permits.  

Feature image, stock.adobe.com

Maggie Roth

Maggie Roth

Associate Editor

Maggie Roth is the associate editor for Northern Virginia Magazine, where she covers news and culture in the NoVA area. Originally from New Jersey, she is a graduate of George Mason University and joined the magazine in 2021 as an editorial intern.

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