Not according to what I was able to find in a few minutes (http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022992719_berthasealsxml.html http://seattletimes.com/html/lo

Not according to what I was able to find in a few minutes (http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022992719_berthasealsxml.html http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022992719_berthaseal...): "Preedy said that when Bertha was being built in Japan, one of the tests performed was to turn on the motors and rotate the cutter head. That’s when testers heard a noise and took Bertha apart. They found that some parts of the machine weren’t moving properly and caused “some metal-on-metal contact and basically damaged the seal assembly for the main bearing,” Preedy said." This was a manufacturing problem discovered when it was first spun up in a test, as far as I can tell not even involving any digging, just making sure everything functioned correctly (e.g. what NASA didn't do with the Hubble mirror).