A joint venture between Granite Construction and Super Excavators has been chosen to build the $324.8 million Big Creek Tunnel planned for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District in the Cleveland area.
The project, announced Oct. 1, is the seventh and final large-diameter storage tunnel in the district’s $3 billion Project Clean Lake program, launched in 2011 to reduce combined sewer overflows and improve regional water quality.
The program, the result of federal and state consent decrees that address overflows in Lake Erie and its tributaries, includes tunnels, treatment plant upgrades, collection system projects and green infrastructure.
The work is expected to include the construction of a 22,300-foot-long, 20-foot-diameter main tunnel, plus about 3,115 feet of auxiliary tunnels, including access and overflow, connection and dewatering tunnels. The project also includes wells, diversion structures, gate and screen structures, consolidation sewers and overflow box culvert, utilities, works and restoration.
The rock-cut tunnel will capture flows from 11 combined sewer overflows, preventing about 550 million gallons of annual sewer discharges into Big Creek and its tributaries. It will stretch more than four miles, measure 20 feet in diameter and extend 50 to 100 feet below Cleveland, Linndale and Brooklyn, Ohio.
The Big Creek Tunnel includes more than four miles of 20-foot-diameter tunnel, built in rock, 50 to 100 feet below Cleveland, Linndale, and Brooklyn, Ohio.
Image courtesy of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Major planned structures include multiple wells, diversion structures, gate and screen structures, gate control vaults, consolidation sewers and an overflow box culvert, along with associated works, restoration and utilities.
“The scale and complexity of this project aligns directly with Granite’s strengths in large-diameter tunneling and shaft construction,” Granite Tunneling Division Vice President Jim Nickerson said in a news release. “This is a major wastewater infrastructure project and will strengthen system performance and protect local waterways in Northeast Ohio.”
Granite-Super JV submitted the lowest of four bids. The price was about 8 percent above the district’s roughly $300 million estimate. Detroit-based Wade Trim is the lead designer, with KS Associates providing surveying services.
Construction, which will now begin, would be completed by the end of 2030, though the district says work could continue into 2031.
