Rains Hamper Doan Valley Storage Tunnel Site
The Woodhill Conveyance Tunnel, presently under construction, is flooded. A tunnel boring machine, currently in operation at the time of the flood, is also underwater. Stormwater runoff washed surface-level debris off the job site and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The Sewer District, its contractor and the City of Cleveland cleaned the roadway debris and traffic is reopened in the area.
The Sewer District is investigating the cause of the flooding within the Doan Brook watershed and evaluating any damages both to the Sewer District construction site and neighboring roadways. One lane of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive will remain closed during this evaluation.
“The Sewer District is investigating this incident to fully understand how the Doan Brook watershed and our construction activities responded to this weekend’s rain. We have cleaned the impacted roadways and will evaluate any additional impacts,” said Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, Chief Executive Officer. “We do know that Doan Brook flooded the DVT job site and contributed debris to MLK.”
District-owned rain gauges throughout the Sewer District’s Service Area showed daily rainfall totals exceeding 2.5 to 3.5 in.
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“This is not the only area that experienced flooding, and our stormwater inspectors are responding to the needs of our member communities,” said Frank Greenland, Director of Watershed Programs. “Many creeks and streams flooded and we are inspecting the stream network to determine appropriate maintenance needs such as clearing debris from culverts.”
DVT is a $142 million underground construction project that will reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) by 365 million gallons annually. The tunnel’s other surface-level construction sites are near Cleveland School of the Arts near the intersection of Carnegie Ave., Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Stearns Rd.; the intersection of Chester Ave., Euclid Ave. and Stokes Blvd.; Superior Avenue and East 115th Street; and Woodhill Road and Baldwin Road. DVT will help control CSOs at 11 locations along Doan Brook, from Shaker Heights to Lake Erie. McNally/Kiewit DVT JV is the prime contractor for this project.
This project began in Summer 2017 and is part of Project Clean Lake, the Sewer District’s $3 billion, 25-year program to control the amount of raw sewage discharged into area waterways, including Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, during heavy rains. Project Clean Lake will reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO) from 4.5 billion gallons to 500 million gallons by 2036.
Two tunnels – Mill Creek Tunnel and Euclid Creek Tunnel – are completed and the Dugway Storage Tunnel is currently under construction. Four additional tunnels are planned as part of Project Clean Lake.
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