Sunday, February 16, 2014

WaPo article on DC Water's sewer tunnel project using the LadyBird tunnel boring machine; brief reference to the DC Water First Street Tunnel project in Bloomingdale



See this long Washington Post article on DC Water's huge sewer tunnel project.  I have not copied in the entire article -- just a few paragraphs.  Click on the link to read the entire story.

There is a brief reference to DC Water's First Street Tunnel project in Bloomingdale.


Meet Lady Bird, a massive machine digging out a solution to D.C. wastewater woes

By Published: February 15


A massive machine — longer than a football field — is munching away beneath Washington like a giant earthworm. Before it’s done, it will devour about 2 million cubic yards of soil that has been sitting under the city since the days of the dinosaurs.
It is the most amazing and expensive construction project that no one ever will see.
                     
It will come within a center fielder’s throw of Nationals Park, within a corner kick of RFK Stadium, nibble at the deepest roots from the National Arboretum, pass below the Love Nightclub and the United House of Prayer for All, go under railroad tracks that carry 1 million-pound trains into Union Station and a six-lane roadway used by 60,000 cars a day, gnaw its way under Home Depot’s doorstep and then chomp more than a mile and a half down Rhode Island Avenue toward Logan Circle.
             
Like the creature from a sci-fi thriller, the machine will tunnel along — six feet at a time — beneath a city largely oblivious to its existence.
                                                                   
“That’s the way we like it,” said James Wonneberg, DC Water’s resident engineer.
...

Here is the paragraph that mentions the DC Water First Street Tunnel project in Bloomingdale.


Just as a river has its tributaries, so does the tunnel, with the largest going up First Street from Rhode Island. And it will have diversion chambers where waste can be stored temporarily so the system isn’t overwhelmed.

            
This is an image of the LadyBird tunnel boring machine that I found via a simple Bing search.

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