Work begins on Indy tunnel 18 feet wide, 8 miles long

Goal of $180 million project is to clean up Indianapolis waterways.

Years of wrangling with environmental officials and working out plans to drastically reduce the release of raw sewage into Indianapolis' waterways finally have given way to action.

City leaders and Citizens Water on Wednesday announced the start of construction on the keystone project to address Indianapolis' dirty -- and sometimes smelly -- problem.

Crews have started prep work for the boring of a nearly $180 million eight-mile tunnel on the city's Southside. Four shorter tunnels will follow, traveling a total of 25 miles beneath the city within 13 years.

They will store the nasty stuff that normally flows from the combined sewer system into waterways during rainstorms.

The result? A cleaner White River, Fall Creek, Pogues Run and Pleasant Run.

The first tunnel -- called the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector -- ranks as the city's largest public works construction project ever, officials say.

Here is an overview of the project. It's overseen by the Citizens Water unit of Citizens Energy Group, which last year completed a $1.9 billion takeover of the city's water and sewer utilities.

Timeline and scope

The first tunnel will take five years. Crews are digging a shaft 250 feet into the earth at the Southport Wastewater Treatment Plant, the southern terminus of the first tunnel.

By late fall, gargantuan boring equipment will arrive on 40 semitrailer trucks from Pennsylvania for assembly, and then drilling will begin.

The tunnel's diameter: 18 feet.

Later tunnel sections, to begin when the Deep Rock tunnel is near completion, will run roughly parallel to White River, Fall Creek, Pogues Run and Pleasant Run by 2025.

The problem

Storms dropping as little as a quarter-inch of rain result in the release of an estimated 7 billion gallons of untreated sewage into waterways each year.

A 2006 consent decree between the city and federal and state environmental agencies requires drastic action by 2025. It resulted in a $1.6 billion Long Term Control Plan.

The tunnels are the highest profile of many projects. When complete, city officials say, the tunnels will reduce untreated sewage overflow by 95 percent -- and 97 percent for Fall Creek.

Standing alongside Mayor Greg Ballard at a news conference Wednesday morning at White River State Park, Citizens President and CEO Carey Lykins called the sewage release "an intolerable condition."

"We're starting today," he said, "and we're going to fix that."

How tunnels will work

The new tunnels will create an underground storage system for sewage, capturing excess during rainstorms. They will slowly channel the nasty stuff to treatment plants.

Together, the tunnels will be able to store 250 million gallons during and after rainstorms, according to Citizens.

Kevin Hardie, executive director of Friends of the White River, a preservation group, joined Ballard and Lykins at Wednesday's announcement.

"Efforts to improve the quality of our waterways are more than just an environmental necessity," Hardie said. "They are an important factor in the local quality of life and how people perceive us as a city."

Doing the work

The first tunnel's estimated cost is about $100 million under the original budget, in part reflecting revision of the plans. Citizens awarded the bid last fall to a joint venture of Los Angeles-based J.F. Shea Co. and Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit.

Theirs was the lowest of nine bids, Citizens says.

Both are storied companies. Shea constructed parts of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and also took part in building the Hoover Dam on the border between Arizona and Nevada. Kiewit has constructed tunnels in California, Georgia and Oregon, according to Citizens.

Who's paying?

If you own a home or business in Indianapolis, you are -- through your sewer bill.

The tab for the cleanup projects is being paid through recent significant annual rate hikes for sewer customers, which included an annual 10.8 percent hike this year. The same increase is planned for 2013.

What will you notice?

Once boring is under way, officials say slight vibrations lasting a few hours or a day are the only thing residents might notice immediately above any work area.

9604 Coldwater Road, Ste. 203
Fort Wayne, IN  46825
(260) 494-3223

A BIG thank you to all who joined us at our open house April 12th.  We appreciate your support!

The Lt. Governor visited the Prince's Lakes area in 2008 to see first hand the damage from the floods.  During her recent visit, she was able to see how the community has "cleaned up" and, when finished, how the improvements to the East Lake Dam will help prevent any future flooding damage.

*4 PDHs, 2 Technical & 1.5 General Wastewater CEUs, and 4 Technical Water CEUs were approved for this seminar.*

Program Agenda

8:30 - 9:00 AM At Door Registration

9:00 - 9:10 Welcome by Mayor Lloyd Winnecke

9:15 - 10:25 Mastering Your Utility's Future: Concept to Completion & Modeling Utilization - Eric T. Parsley, P.E.

10:25 - 10:35 BREAK

10:35 - 11:25 You Too Can Be Singing In the Rain! Wet Weather Operational & Treatment
Strategies - Albert C. Stong, P.E.

11:25 - 12:25 LUNCH (provided)

12:25 - 1:15 Taking the Smell Out of Your Sewers. Town of Newburgh Barometric Loop Project - David A. Hynes, P.E.

1:15 - 1:25 BREAK

1:25 - 1:50 Clean Water Regulations - What Matters In Today's Dynamic Climate - Brady Dryer

1:50 - 2:00 Closing Remarks

Now complete and on-line, the new $23 million Wastewater Treatment Pant is capable of handling nearly 8 million gallons of sewage per day; almost double of its original capacity of 4.6  million gallons per day.

The Town is an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) recipient, with the awarding of a $5 million grant.

Click here to see the article published by 14 News.

Click here to see the article published by tristatehomepage.com.

In August 2010, the Town of Chrisney was awarded a grant in the amount of $872,600 from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) for dam improvements.  This grant will allow the Town to rehabilitate the principal spillway, stabilize the embankments, upgrade flow capacities of the emergency spillway, provide emergency lake drawdown capabilities, and various other structural improvements and renovations.

The project was designed by Commonwealth Engineers, Inc. out of Evansville, Indiana.  The construction contract was awarded to Burlington Civil, Inc. from Owensboro, Kentucky.  Construction of the project will begin immediately.  The project is scheduled to be complete by April 2012.