KS Associates has kicked off a major surveying project for the design of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s (NEORSD) Big Creek Tunnel (BCT). Under contract with lead design firm Wade Trim, KS Associates is providing surveying for the new 22,440-foot-long, 20-foot-diameter tunnel, with an estimated construction cost of $260 million.
KS Associates will survey more than four miles of streets and roads to develop a map that will be used to design the proposed tunnel alignment and its six shaft sites, from approximately W. 130th Street in Cleveland to W. 24th Street in Brooklyn. Work includes performing 3D laser scanning for approximately 40 regulator structures and culverts, some of which require specialized confined space surveys, topographic surveys, boundary and Right-of-Way surveys, and legal descriptions for easements.
The BCT is the largest and last of seven large-diameter tunnels that NEORSD will design, construct, operate, and maintain as part of Project Clean Lake. Project Clean Lake is a $3 billion, 25-year program that NEORSD began in 2011 under a Consent Decree with the Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ohio EPA, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to reduce annual wet weather CSOs discharged to Lake Erie and its tributaries in the Greater Cleveland area.
Since 2006, KS Associates has provided surveying services for all seven of the Project Clean Lake tunnels, some of which are up to 250 below ground. These projects represent approximately 20 miles of new tunnels:
- Euclid Creek Tunnel – 18,000 feet
- Dugway Storage Tunnel – 14,000 feet
- Doan Valley Storage Tunnel (main tunnel) – 10,000 feet
- Westerly Storage Tunnel – 10,500 feet
- Shoreline Storage Tunnel – 14,100 feet
- Southerly Storage Tunnel – 18,000 feet
- Big Creek Storage Tunnel – 22,440 feet
