Exciting sewer project is about to get boring.
What this 800-ton tunnel boring machine milestone means for a cleaner Lake Erie
The sixth of seven huge tunnels in our project plans inched forward this week as a million-pound boring machine was lowered deep underground to begin tunneling work that’s anything but boring.
Slowly, surely, and safely, crews spent nearly 12 hours moving an 800-ton tunnel boring machine 193 feet underground March 25 as construction of our Southerly Tunnel reached its latest milestone. This latest Project Clean Lake storage tunnel will prevent up to 760 million gallons of combined sewer overflow pollution a year when complete and online in 2029, contributing to more than 4 billion gallons of CSO reduction a year when the program concludes in 2036.
Lowering the machine from the surface to its temporary resting place took nearly 12 hours.
As expected with a machine this size, and much like the five Project Clean Lake tunnels before it, the Southerly Tunnel itself will be huge: 18,100 feet long and 23 feet wide. Boring is expected to begin later this summer.
Project Clean Lake is our 25-year commitment to reduce combined sewer overflow pollution through a combination of operational improvements, green infrastructure investments, and seven large storage tunnels that hold combined sewage deep underground until treatment plants have the capacity to handle the flow. Four tunnels are online,
- Euclid Creek Tunnel: Operational
- Dugway Storage Tunnel: Operational
- Doan Valley Tunnel: Operational
- Westerly Storage Tunnel: Operational
- Shoreline Storage Tunnel: Under construction, online in 2025
- Southerly Tunnel: Under construction, complete in 2028
- Big Creek Tunnel: In design
