​​​​​​​$1.2B Water ​Tunnel Project ​Announced for ​NYC

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​​​​​​​$1.2B Water ​Tunnel Project ​Announced for ​NYC

NYC DEP Announces Plans For $1.2bn Kensico-Eastview Connection Tunnel Project

New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced plans for a $1.2 billion tunnelling project that will improve operational flexibility between facilities that are vital to the drinking water supply for more than 9 million people in the City and Westchester County. The public works project will be New York City’s largest water-supply tunnelling effort in Westchester County since the 1940s. Construction on the first elements of the project is expected to start in approximately five years.

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Representative image, Source: Pixabay

The centrepiece of the project – known as the Kensico-Eastview Connection (KEC) – will be a 2-mile (3.2km) long tunnel between the Kensico Reservoir and the Catskill-Delaware Ultraviolet Light Disinfection Facility, in Eastview, Westchester County. The new aqueduct will provide additional conveyance between these vital components of the water supply, giving DEP the ability to take other facilities out of service for maintenance and inspection.

“The Kensico-Eastview Connection is a critical investment in the long-term resiliency of New York City’s water supply system,” DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “By providing an additional connection between Kensico Reservoir and our treatment facilities to the south, this new tunnel will further guarantee the reliable delivery of water to New York City and population centers in Westchester County.”

The KEC project will include construction of the new tunnel, facilities to draw water from Kensico Reservoir and move water into the ultraviolet plant, and other infrastructure work. In 2017, DEP collected soil and bedrock samples from the area to support the design of the project, which has already begun. Construction on the first portions of the KEC project are expected to start in approximately five years; work on the tunnel itself is expected to begin around 2025. DEP expects to finish the project around 2035.

The tunnel will stretch approximately 2-miles from an intake chamber on the western side of Kensico Reservoir to a connection point at the ultraviolet disinfection facility. DEP expects the finished tunnel to measure approximately 27ft (8.2m) in diameter and run 400-500ft (120-150m) below ground. The tunnel will be large enough to carry a maximum of 2.6 billion gallons of water each day. Its design accounts for future growth in the City and Westchester County, the potential addition of treatment facilities, and the need to periodically take other aqueducts out of service for maintenance or inspection.

Read full article: Tunnelling Journal

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