The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has selected Frontier-Kemper Constructors for a $1.1 billion contract for its Kensico-Eastview Connecting Tunnel project, the contractor’s parent company announced, Tutor Perini Corp., on October 23.
The plan calls for the construction of a 2-mile-long, 27-foot-diameter concrete-lined deep rock tunnel 400 feet to 500 feet underground to transport potable water from Kensico Reservoir to the facility of ultraviolet light disinfection Catskill/Delaware in Mount. Pleasant, NY The tunnel is planned for a capacity to transport 2.6 billion gallons of water per day.
DEP officials said in environmental review documents that they expect the contractor to dig a shaft at each end of the tunnel and use a TBM that starts at the disinfection facility and moves northeast toward the reservoir .
The 30.6 billion-gallon Kensico Reservoir was created in 1915 by impounding the Bronx River, although most of its water comes from the western Hudson River via a pair of aqueducts. DEP draws about 1 billion gallons of drinking water from the reservoir daily.
You need to work to increase flexibility and redundancy of New York City’s water system, according to DEP. The agency is also to undertake the project as part of the terms of a 2019 consent decree with the US Environmental Protection Agency.
“This project will help us fulfill our commitment to provide a consistent and reliable supply of the highest quality water to New York City and the growing population centers of Westchester County,” said Commissioner DEP Rohit Aggarwala in a statement when site preparation work began earlier this year. year
Contracting records show that Schiavone Construction Co. LLC and Skanska USA Civil Northeast Inc. they also submitted proposals for the contract.
Frontier-Kemper declined to comment on the project beyond the contract award announcement, and DEP did not respond to inquiries.
The scope of the $1.9 billion project, which is being contracted out in phases, also includes other improvements at sites at each end of the tunnel. DEP previously awarded a $107.7 million contract to New Rochelle, N.Y.-based PJS Montesano JV LLC for site preparation work, records show. The contractor is a joint venture of Paul J. Scariano Inc. and Montesano Brothers Inc.
Substantial completion of the Frontier-Kemper work is scheduled for 2030, according to the contractor, and DEP expects the tunnel to be fully online by 2035.
