{"id":261,"date":"2025-06-01T17:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T21:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/?p=261"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:29:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:29:05","slug":"giant-waste-tunnel-to-begin-holding-waste-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/2025\/06\/01\/giant-waste-tunnel-to-begin-holding-waste-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra Water Underground Delays Massive Waste Tunnel Operation to 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

By Elijah Polance
UConn Journalism<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) began con\u00adstruct\u00ading a stor\u00adage tun\u00adnel to hold untreat\u00aded sewage and rain\u00adwa\u00adter dur\u00ading storms. It is called the South Hartford Conveyance and Storage Tunnel and was sup\u00adposed to be com\u00adplet\u00aded by the end of 2023. But delays with the con\u00adtrac\u00adtor and a relat\u00aded law\u00adsuit advanced the pre\u00addict\u00aded oper\u00ada\u00adtion to fall 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The delays were due to excess water under\u00adground dur\u00ading drilling, said Susan Negrelli, direc\u00adtor of engi\u00adneer\u00ading and plan\u00adning for the MDC. She said that with such large-scale projects, there are inevitable unknown fac\u00adtors that can\u00adnot be account\u00aded for before\u00adhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe con\u00adtrac\u00adtor claimed they had more water that they had to deal with in the tun\u00adnel as they were exca\u00advat\u00ading than the design plans showed,\u201d Negrelli said. \u201cSo that slowed them down con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That con\u00adtrac\u00adtor, Kenny Obayashi, sued the MDC, which announced the par\u00adties set\u00adtled in March by agree\u00ading to about $51 mil\u00adlion for addi\u00adtion\u00adal change orders, the MDC report\u00aded in a state\u00adment. The tun\u00adnel con\u00adtract was ini\u00adtial\u00adly priced at $279 mil\u00adlion, but the total cost is now list\u00aded as $335 mil\u00adlion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MDC spokesman Nick Salemi said in a state\u00adment sent to all media, \u201cIt is not uncom\u00admon for own\u00aders, and by exten\u00adsion its con\u00adtrac\u00adtors, to encounter dif\u00adfer\u00ading site con\u00addi\u00adtions in the con\u00adstruc\u00adtion of deep rock tun\u00adnels, in this case a tun\u00adnel approx\u00adi\u00admate\u00adly 200 feet below the sur\u00adface.\u201d The MDC said Obayashi\u2019s com\u00adpa\u00adny, KOJV, had sub\u00admit\u00adted sev\u00ader\u00adal change orders for the tunnel\u2019s three reach\u00ades. The orders totaled more than $100 mil\u00adlion. MDC agreed with some of the claims but dis\u00adput\u00aded the amount of the extra costs. All but $28 mil\u00adlion of the $51 mil\u00adlion agreed upon was eli\u00adgi\u00adble for Clean Water Fund grants and loan fund\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tun\u00adnel mea\u00adsures four miles long and runs 200 feet under\u00adground, with enough space for the tunnel\u2019s 18-foot diam\u00ade\u00adter. It was car\u00adried out with a bor\u00ading machine named IRIS, which began drilling in 2019 and fin\u00adished in 2022. It will hold waste from West Hartford and south\u00adern areas of Hartford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Salemi, spokesper\u00adson for the MDC, said delays in the drilling process set back con\u00adstruc\u00adtion of the water pump sta\u00adtion. He said the pump sta\u00adtion could not begin con\u00adstruc\u00adtion until the tun\u00adnel was fin\u00adished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tun\u00adnel por\u00adtion went slow\u00ader than antic\u00adi\u00adpat\u00aded, which pushed back some of the other work,\u201d Salemi said. \u201cThe pump sta\u00adtion is in con\u00adstruc\u00adtion right now.\u201d The sta\u00adtion will trans\u00adport the stored waste and stormwa\u00adter upwards and across a road to the Hartford Water Pollution Treatment Facility. Upon treat\u00adment, the cleaned water will be released into the Connecticut River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negrelli said the pump station\u2019s orig\u00adi\u00adnal planned com\u00adple\u00adtion date of July 2026 may may be pushed later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re deal\u00ading with some delays with some elec\u00adtri\u00adcal equip\u00adment,\u201d Negrelli said while show\u00ading jour\u00adnal\u00adists the pump site in April. \u201cSo we\u2019re think\u00ading about the late sum\u00admer or fall of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salemi said the pump sta\u00adtion relies on physics to move the water upwards. \u201cThe whole thing works on grav\u00adi\u00adty,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of elec\u00adtric\u00adi\u00adty to get it 200 feet to the plant. The pump sta\u00adtion pumps the water up across the street to the treat\u00adment plant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction of the pump sta\u00adtion is being car\u00adried out by the engi\u00adneer\u00ading com\u00adpa\u00adny Arcadis, which has done work for other MDC projects. Greg Bazydola, Arcadis project man\u00adag\u00ader for the pump sta\u00adtion, said the work bal\u00adances fac\u00adtors like automa\u00adtion, pre\u00advent\u00ading excess water pres\u00adsure buildup, and avoid\u00ading excess humid\u00adi\u00adty, which can dam\u00adage equip\u00adment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two shafts in that sta\u00adtion extend under\u00adground to meet the pump. The first shaft was where the tun\u00adnel drilling began with a crane low\u00ader\u00ading IRIS to the nec\u00ades\u00adsary depth. Now that the tun\u00adnel itself has been dug, this shaft will be repur\u00adposed to screen large solids and grit from water stored in the tun\u00adnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to pro\u00adtect those pumps that are down there from big debris so it doesn\u2019t wear any\u00adthing,\u201d Bazydola said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, more waste from the Franklin Avenue area of South Hartford will also flow into this pump sta\u00adtion. Those con\u00adduits have yet to built. That project is called Contract Four, also called the East Conduits. The Franklin Avenue con\u00adduits do not need to be fin\u00adished for the tun\u00adnel to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP IMAGE: At the future pump site, a shaft goes down 200 feet to meet the end of the waste tun\u00adnel. Photo by Christine Woodside<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elijah PolanceUConn Journalism In 2016, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) began con\u00adstruct\u00ading a stor\u00adage tun\u00adnel to hold untreat\u00aded sewage and rain\u00adwa\u00adter dur\u00ading storms. It is called the South Hartford Conveyance and Storage Tunnel and was sup\u00adposed to be com\u00adplet\u00aded by the end of 2023. But delays with the con\u00adtrac\u00adtor and a relat\u00aded law\u00adsuit advanced\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-tunnel","tag-the-tunnel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/files\/2025\/05\/1F8276AB-2342-438C-BFAA-8F59A5BD278B_4_5005_c-e1749838981744.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}