NEORSD’s Westerly Tunnel Reaches Milestone with Lowering of Cutterhead

By TBM Staff October 9, 2019

Digging a 2-mile tunnel 200 ft under Cleveland requires a tunnel boring machine and a huge cutterhead in front of it. The cutterhead for Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District‘s Westerly Storage Tunnel is 29 ft tall, some 300,000 lbs, and on Oct. 3 was hoisted by crane and lowered to the bottom of the launch shaft where it will be attached to the tunnel boring machine being assembled underground.

The Lovsuns TBM will bore through shale, advancing at a speed of about 5 ft an hour, installing precast concrete segments as it progresses.

The Westerly Storage Tunnel is the latest in the district’s Project Clean Lake tunnels that will reduce combined sewer overflow pollution in Lake Erie by 4 billion gallons a year upon completion in 2036.
The cutterhead was built in China and spent weeks traveling overseas before reaching the Port of Cleveland in September.

A joint venture of Jay Dee–Obayashi was awarded the $135 million construction contract. The design contract was awarded to a joint venture of Mott MacDonald and MWH Global/Stantec in 2015.

SOURCE: NEORSD

RELATED: NEORSD Awards Westerly Storage Tunnel to Jay Dee-Obayashi

 

Share Article:

Comments are closed here.

TBM: Tunnel Business Magazine's Weekly Newsletter and More

Get industry news updates and product information to help you stay up to date.

By submitting this form, you acknowledge that we may use your personal information for marketing communications.

Read this next