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Workers at Granite Construction and its joint venture partner will soon get their feet wet building a $324.8 million tunnel project in Cleveland.
Super Excavators of Granite and Menomonee Falls, Wis., will build the Big Creek Tunnel for Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer Districtaccording to an Oct. 1 press release from Granite.
Granite’s scope of work, based in Watsonville, Calif., includes the construction of 22,300 linear feet of 20-foot diameter tunnel and 3,115 linear feet of auxiliary tunnels. Other structures include an overflow tunnel, a connecting tunnel and a dewatering tunnel.
The work will also include multiple wells, bypass structures, gate and screen structures, gate control vaults, consolidation culverts and an overflow box culvert. Labor, catering and associated utilities are also covered, according to the release. When completed, the structures will eliminate 550 million gallons of combined sewer releases annually.
According to NEORSD, the The Big Creek Tunnel is part of the Clean Lake Projecta $3 billion, 24-year program that began in 2011 to improve water quality in the region and meet Clean Water Act standards. The structure will run for more than four miles through bedrock, 50 to 100 feet below Cleveland, Linndale and Brooklyn.
The Big Creek Tunnel will be the last of seven large-diameter combined sewer overflow storage tunnels built under the program, which will reduce 4.5 billion gallons of combined sewer overflow from being released into Lake Erie and surrounding waterways.
“The scale and complexity of this project aligns directly with Granite’s strengths in large-diameter tunneling and shaft construction,” said Jim Nickerson, vice president of Granite’s tunneling division. “This is a major wastewater infrastructure project and will strengthen system performance and protect local waterways in Northeast Ohio.”
Public water infrastructure projects have been great business for prime contractors in 2026. Grand prizes include the $1 billion Ohio River Tunnel contract in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for a joint venture of Lane Construction and Brayman Construction ia $518 million flood project in Virginia that FlatironDragados began construction earlier this year.
The US Department of Transportation in June as well allocated $1.86 billion to infrastructure storm damage, including water systems, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in September 2024.
For the Big Creek Tunnel in Cleveland, construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2026. Granite expects completion in the winter of 2030.
