MORE INFORMATION > Presentation: CSO Control Program Update (PDF - 7/19/06)

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Board of Directors today approved the award of a contract for the construction of a 17-foot diameter, 2.1-mile long soft ground tunnel in South Boston that will virtually eliminate combined sewer overflows and stormwater discharges to the beaches in South Boston.

The North Dorchester Bay CSO Storage Tunnel contract is the largest construction contract associated with the CSO control plan for South Boston.  The contractor, a joint venture of Shank/Balfour Beatty/Barletta, will construct the tunnel in soft ground using a tunnel boring machine.  The work will include a mining shaft at the downstream end of the tunnel in Massport’s Conley Terminal; an equipment removal shaft at the upstream end of the tunnel near the Bayside Exposition Center; six intermediate drop shafts at the existing CSO outfalls; CSO and stormwater diversion and control structures; and associated shallow piping and utility conduits. 

Shank/Balfour Beatty/Barletta was the low bidder with a price of $145.7 million.  The tunnel is expected to be completed in 2009.  Milestones for construction of this contract and the other North Dorchester Bay related contracts are included the comprehensive CSO plan approved by Federal District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns in April this year and are part of the final phase of the clean-up of Boston Harbor under the court order. 

In March 2006, MWRA successfully completed construction of the Pleasure Bay Storm Drain Improvements.  A future contract will include construction of an odor control facility for the tunnel and a pump station and connecting force main that will allow MWRA to dewater the storage tunnel to the local interceptor system after storms.  The related Morrissey Boulevard Storm Drain project, which is being designed and constructed by BWSC under agreement with MWRA, is scheduled to commence construction in December 2006.

Since 1987, MWRA has been at the forefront nationally in the planning, design and implementation of CSO control. By 2015, MWRA is projected to spend over $850 million on CSO control projects, in addition to the $3.8 billion already spent on the Boston Harbor Clean-up that have dramatically improved the health of the harbor and brought people back to Boston’s waterfront.

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