PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) broke ground on the 4.9-mile Ohio River Tunnel project in Pittsburgh, aiming to reduce regional sewer overflows by 7 billion gallons per year.
The tunnel is the first component of ALCOSAN’s Regional Tunnel System. The underground network is designed to capture excess wastewater during wet weather and transport it to a central facility for treatment.
The project forms a central part of the authority’s Clean Water Plan to update regional wastewater infrastructure and improve local water quality.
The 4.9-mile main tunnel will run from Pittsburgh’s North Shore to ALCOSAN’s wastewater treatment plant. Smaller connecting tunnels will link to the main line, capturing wastewater flows from the Saw Mill Run and Chartiers Creek areas.
Work will take place across eight construction sites, including six within Pittsburgh and two in McKees Rocks.
“This groundbreaking is more than the start to construction,” ALCOSAN Executive Director Arletta Scott Williams said during the groundbreaking ceremony at the AS1 construction site. “Arriving at this day required grit, determination and commitment from countless people. Today is a day to celebrate, but we also know there is work ahead. We have the people, the expertise and the resolve to carry us through the next phase and I am incredibly proud of the work that’s been done to get us here.”
The project is part of ALCOSAN’s Clean Water Plan, an initiative that integrates treatment plant expansion, regionalization and green infrastructure through its GROW program.
The authority recently reached a treatment capacity of 480 million gallons per day, satisfying a compliance target under a federal Consent Decree. Authority officials expect the expanded daily capacity to reduce an additional 3.4 billion gallons of sewer overflows annually.
Contractor Steel City Tunnel Partners will begin drilling the first access shafts at the construction site. The drilling prepares the location for the arrival of a Tunnel Boring Machine scheduled late next year.
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