en.Wedoany.com Reported - A key milestone has been reached in a water environment protection project in Pittsburgh, with the official awarding of the Ohio River Tunnel contract. The $1 billion contract was awarded to Steel City Tunnel Partners, a joint venture equally owned by The Lane Construction Corporation and Brayman Construction Corporation.
The Ohio River Tunnel is a core component of the Clean Water Plan by the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN). This plan aims to reduce the impact of combined sewer overflows on regional water bodies during heavy rainfall. Located between 36 and 45 meters underground, the tunnel will prevent untreated sewage from being discharged directly into the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. The project combines precision engineering with integrated water resource management and environmental protection concepts to improve water quality in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
The tunnel structure, akin to an underground river, will collect excess untreated water through engineered channels, transport it to a deep tunnel for temporary storage, and eventually pump it to an upgraded wastewater treatment plant. This tunnel is the first of three regional tunnels planned under the Clean Water Plan. In the future, it will operate in coordination with the Allegheny River Tunnel and the Monongahela River Tunnel to collectively reduce the city's vulnerability to sudden rainstorms and bring improvements to river ecosystems.
The main project scope includes excavating approximately 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) of tunnel and multiple shafts. The main hydraulic tunnel, with a diameter exceeding 5 meters (18 feet) and a length of about 6 kilometers (3.8 miles), will be excavated using a new tunnel boring machine (TBM). Two secondary tunnels—the Chartiers Creek Tunnel and the Saw Mill Run Tunnel—will connect to the main tunnel, each with a diameter of about 4 meters and lengths of approximately 1.3 kilometers (4,500 feet) and 500 meters (1,600 feet), respectively. Additionally, the project includes surface works involving multiple flow regulators, two technical buildings, and a new river outfall. All surface infrastructure will be integrated into the urban environment as much as possible to minimize its footprint.
In the project, The Lane Construction Corporation, as a member of the Webuild Group, provides highly specialized construction capabilities; the Webuild Group contributes extensive international experience in hydraulic tunneling. The group owns one of the world's largest fleets of tunnel boring machines, with 60 such machines currently in operation, under assembly, or on order for various projects worldwide.
In the United States, The Lane Construction Corporation has completed over 160 kilometers (100 miles) of tunneling across more than 200 projects for water and urban infrastructure systems. Related projects include the Northeast Boundary Tunnel (NEBT) and the Anacostia River Tunnel, part of the Washington, D.C. wastewater treatment system; the Ship Canal Water Quality Project in Washington State; and the Palisades Tunnel in New Jersey, which is the first mechanized tunneling contract awarded under the Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP).
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