Current Projects

Sewer Overflow Project Plans Unveiled

Herald News - James Finlaw Reporter - 5/23/02

The tree-covered slope is peaceful now, but in the coming weeks the tranquil incline will be transformed into the epicenter of the most unique construction project in city history. Starting later this month the wooded hill, which is sandwiched between Swift and Arnold streets in the city's South End, will be stripped of its greenery by work crews from J.F.Shea Co. Inc of Walnut, Calif. The land will be cleared as the company preps the site for the onset of the city's long-anticipated, court-ordered $115 million Combined Sewer Overflow Abatement Project. With the parcel set to be cleared of flora by mid to late June, city Director of Public Works Terry Sullivan, representatives from the engineering and consulting firm the city hired to oversee the massive project, and a state official gathered at the site Wednesday morning to discuss the project.

The group convened in the paved, bus turnaround located off of Bay Street at the foot of the hills. During the presentation, Sullivan displayed a map, an architectural diagram, and an aerial photograph of the area to explain the scope of the project, its impact on residents, and the time frame in which it will be conducted. According to Sullivan, Shea will erect fencing around the perimeter of the construction site once the land has been cleared of trees and brush. The company will also be setting up offices for its staff and for the city's construction manager, Camp, Dresser and McKee of Cambridge, on a plot of newly cleared land on Arnold Street. Shea will also be using a piece of property on Flynn Street that has already been cleared to store equipment and materials. "There certainly will be construction impacts in these areas. Certainly a project of this magnitude...there will be some impact,"said Sullivan. It is expected that Shea will have completed work on the storage and office areas by mid-July. In an effort to accommodate residents living in the vicinity of the construction, the city has set up a toll-free, 24-hour information hotline. Sullivan said those with questions, comments or complaints about the project can call 866-631-9600 to register their concerns and get information.

The heart of the impending project involves the boring of a three-mile long tunnel beneath the city. The tunnel will intercept a number of the city's aged, existing sewer tunnels, preventing their putrid contents from spilling into Mt. Hope Bay. The existing CSO tunnels routinely overflow into the bay when it rains. Sullivan said a huge, 300-foot long "tunnel boring machine" will be used to drill the tunnel through the massive granite plateau that the bulk of the city sits upon. The huge drilling machine will enter the earth at the top of the slope that will shortly be cleared, and will carve a subterranean path in a northerly direction to the intersection of Spring and Pearl Streets. The drill will then head east and tunnel to Lowell Street. The tunnel will run at an average depth of 100 feet.

Robert M. Otoski of Camp, Dresser and McKee said the drilling of the south (Swift to Spring Street) and central (Spring to Lowell Streets) tunnels would not likely begin until December or January. He said the enormous drill, currently being constructed in Wisconsin, will be delivered to the city piece by piece beginning this summer. Shea will assemble the boring machine from October to November. Once the drill is completed and the project begins, Otoski said the machine will spend all of 2003 tunneling beneath the city. He said he expected the tunnel to be dug by the end of December 2003.

Otoski and Sullivan said a rail system will be laid behind the boring machine to allow debris to be carted out of the tunnel. As the debris is removed from the tunnel it will be placed on a conveyor belt that will whisk it down to a pile at the bottom of the hill. Sullivan said front end loaders will move debris from the pile to trucks that will be parked in the existing bus turnaround at the bottom of the slope on Bay Street. The trucks will then remove the debris from the scene. Sullivan said Shea's $55.9 million contract calls for them to dispose of the debris.

Once completed, the new CSO tunnel will have the ability to handle "80% of the dry and wet weather flow" the city's sewers are called upon to handle,said Sullivan. He said the tunnel will have the capacity to take on 106 million gallons of sewage and rainwater per day. The city's wastewater treatment plant received a $20 million upgrade in 1999 to prepare it for the increased flow the new tunnel will generate . If it cannot cope with the flow during heavy rain, the tunnel can be temporarily shut down, Sullivan said. When it is shut down it can store 45 million gallons of sewage that can later be sent to the treatment plant.

David DeLorenzo, the deputy regional director of the state's Department of Environmental Protection, joined Sullivan and the Camp, Dresser, and McKee representatives at the site. The DEP is one of the agencies charged with overseeing the project, which a federal court judge ordered the city to undertake in 1992 to settle a lawsuit filed against the city in 1988 by the Boston-based environmental group, the Conservation Law Foundation. The group filed the suit claiming Fall River's antiquated sewer system was dumping more than a billion gallons of untreated sewage and rainwater into the bay each year. "We are extremely pleased to be at this point in this project. It has been a lengthy process,"he said.

The firm of Gioioso and Sons of Hyde Park is in the process of laying a 460-foot long pipe that will ultimately connect the mammoth CSO tunnel to the treatment plant. Sullivan expects the pipe to be laid by the end of August.

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