Huge drill called in to solve Cleveland wastewater problems

A huge drill has been deployed in Cleveland to help solve its wastewater problems, with the 320,000 pound Mackenzie equipment set to dig a new three-mile long sewer tunnel in the Northeast Ohio city.

Crews with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) have started lowering a 320,000 pound, 500-foot long boring machine which has been called in to develop new sewage treatment solutions in the American city. After being placed down a 200-foot shaft, it is now ready to commence work on the Euclid Creek Tunnel.

When the project has been completed, the tunnel is expected to hold 52 million gallons of storm and wastewater before that water is treated and sent into Lake Erie.

Doug Gabriel, construction program manager for NEORSD said: "After it's in place, Mackenzie will be attached to the main drive unit of the tunnel boring machine and then it will be moved into a starter tunnel, before being ready for operation."

The boring machine works at a rate of around 50-75 feet per day, compared to conventional drills, which would take a week to dig the same distance. It also builds the pipe as it moves through the tunnel, which is 27 foot in diameter.

Kellie Rotunno, director of engineering and construction with NEORSD said: "It is a single pass tunnel-boring machine, which basically means that as the mining begins the machine is actually going to be building the pipe segments behind it as it goes."

Mackenzie will now be submerged under the city until 2014, when the tunnel is expected to be completed. This is one of several tunnels that are being constructed as part of the Project Clean Lake, the Sewer District's 25-year, $3 billion (£1.9 billion) program to drastically reduce the amount of combined sewage entering local waterways annually.

The estimated cost of construction for the Euclid Creek Tunnel is $198 million (£127 million).

Posted by Lauren Steadman