Actually, I was more impressed about 15 years back when they started flood prevention work in my home town of Bradford (Yorkshire, England). The city centre is built over a stream, Bradford Beck, which in very occasional exceptional rains would come up above ground level.
The remedy was to dig a tunnel diverting the stream around the city centre, which is at the bottom of a circle of hills.
The machine they used was almost identical to the "mole" from Thunderbirds, with a spiral screw in front of a cylindrical body, which followed the cutting edge into the tunnel it made.
At the time, I wondered if Gerry Anderson got any royalties for the design.
Quack!
GtD.