Yesterday, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Board began excavation of the tunnel shaft for its 17-foot diameter, 2.1-mile long soft ground tunnel in South Boston.  When completed, the tunnel will virtually eliminate combined sewer overflows and stormwater discharges to the beaches in South Boston.

The tunnel contract is the largest construction contract associated with the CSO control plan for South Boston.  The contractor, a joint venture of Shank/Balfour Beatty/Barletta, will begin mining the tunnel in soft ground using a tunnel boring machine in the fall. The tunnel boring machine is currently being fabricated in Japan and is expected to be delivered to the site in October 2007.

In March 2006, MWRA successfully completed construction of the Pleasure Bay Storm Drain Improvements.  A future contract will include construction of an odor control facility for the tunnel and a pump station and connecting force main that will allow MWRA to dewater the storage tunnel to the local interceptor system after storms.  The related Morrissey Boulevard Storm Drain project, which is being designed and constructed by BWSC under agreement with MWRA, is scheduled to commence construction in 2007.

Since 1987, MWRA has been at the forefront nationally in the planning, design and implementation of CSO control. By 2015, MWRA is projected to spend over $850 million on CSO control projects, in addition to the $3.8 billion already spent on the Boston Harbor Clean-up that has dramatically improved the health of the harbor and brought people back to Boston’s waterfront.

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