VIDEO: 160 Feet Down - Inside the New Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnel
GoLocalProv News Team
VIDEO: 160 Feet Down - Inside the New Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnel
There are no stairs and no elevator. Just the cage.
The "there" is the tunnel being dug as part of the third phase of the combined sewer overflow project. The cost of this phase is $800 million and in total will employ 500 people.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Narragansett Bay Commission is building a 2.2-mile tunnel that averages about 200 feet below. The project will help continue the efforts to improve the water quality of Narragansett Bay.
Going Underground for a Look
GoLocal traveled underground to get a look at the massive construction project.
The tunnel, as it is dug, will travel along the Seekonk and Blackstone Rivers — the entrance to the tunnel is in Pawtucket.
The tunneling is brutal — grinding through rock, primarily sandstone and shale with areas of quartz and graphitic shale. As the project ramps up — on a good day, 56 feet with be drilled.
The TBM — the giant drilling apparatus was manufactured by Herrenrecht in Germany and shipped to Rhode Island,
It weighs 400+ tons, and the cutterhead alone weighs 200 tons.
SEE SLIDESHOW BELOW
160 Feet Down - Inside the New Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnel
Inside the tunnel - the beginning of two years of drilling.
The cutter head drill is approximately 30 feet wide.
Looking down the shaft to get to the tunnel, 160 feet down. In some places, it will be 200 feet.
There is only one way down - in a cage lifted by a crane.
To get to the tunnel -- there are no stairs or elevator. It's into the cage, then down 160 feet.
NBC Chairman Vin Mesolella leading the tour.
Mesolella has overseen three CSO projects -- the bay is cleaner now than 150 years ago.
