BY THE NUMBERS: Mackenzie's a machine that's anything but boring

Mackenzie is the name of the huge tunnel digger that will burrow the route of the Euclid Creek Tunnel, a major piece of our Project Clean Lake efforts. Here are some of the stats about the project and the equipment.

About the Euclid Creek Tunnel

The Euclid Creek Tunnel is a $197 million project that will capture combined sewage (a mixture of wastewater and stormwater) and store it until it can be pumped out and treated at the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Euclid Creek Tunnel—located approximately 200 feet below ground—will be 24 feet in diameter and nearly three miles long when complete. It will hold 52 million gallons of combined sewage at a time.

What is the purpose of the tunnel boring machine?

A tunnel boring machine, or TBM, cuts through rock. This is the piece of equipment used to excavate the 18,000-foot long tunnel. This TBM is “single pass,” which means that after it cuts through the bedrock, it also places lining segments into place so that the tunnel is fully lined and watertight. It will cut a path 27 feet in diameter and, when the lining segments are in place and grouted, the finished diameter of the tunnel will be 24 feet.

The TBM’s cutterhead weighs 345,000 pounds. It is comprised of 52 tungsten carbide steel disks, each weighing 260 pounds and measuring 17 inches in diameter. The diameter of the cutterhead is 27 feet.

How will the TBM make its way underground? How will it be removed?

The tunnel boring machine will be lowered via crane into Shaft 1 at the primary construction site in Bratenahl. The TBM will be lowered in and assembled in sections underground.   Then, once the tunnel is completed, it will be extracted from Shaft 5, which is located at intersection of St. Clair Avenue and East 185th Street in Cleveland.

Several other portions of the TBM have already been lowered into Shaft 1, including the drive shaft which weighs 340,000 pounds.

How long will it take to excavate the tunnel?

The current project schedule indicates tunnel excavation and lining installation is to occur from August 2012 to October 2013. Mackenzie will run 16 hours each day (two shifts) and excavate between 50-75 feet during that time. The third shift is dedicated to maintenance on the TBM.

Where was the TBM built?

The parts for tunnel boring machine were manufactured in Germany by Herrenknecht, a leading manufacturer of TBMs. It was then shipped to China for assembly and testing. Most of this machine is comprised of new parts. However, some parts were re-manufactured from another tunnel boring machine that was used in China.

How did the tunnel boring machine get to Northeast Ohio?

This machine has traveled a long way to get to Greater Cleveland.  Following testing in China, the TBM was partially disassembled and shipped from China. It passed through the Panama Canal and arrived in the United States in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there, the TBM traveled by truck to Cleveland.

How much does the machine weigh?

The total weight of the fully assembled TBM is 1,500 tons. The drive shaft weighs 340,000 pounds and the cutter head weighs an additional 345,000 pounds. 

The TBM is 300 feet long and measures 27 feet in diameter. This is the second-largest TBM in the country. To put it into perspective, the machine, once assembled, will weigh about the same as 500 female elephants.

Why is the tunnel boring machine named “Mackenzie”?

Tunnel boring machines are traditionally given a female name when they are manufactured; Mackenzie is the name of the daughter of a McNally-Kiewit employee.  McNally-Kiewit is the contractor for the Euclid Creek Tunnel project.

How do I learn more?

• youtube.com/neorsdccr
• twitter.com/WallyWaterdrop and twitter.com/neorsd
• facebook.com/yoursewerdistrict

EUCLID CREEK TUNNEL: Mackenzie prepares to make her three-mile journey

The cutterhead for Ohio’s largest tunnel boring machine, named “Mackenzie,” will begin its descent into Shaft 1 of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Euclid Creek Tunnel on Friday, June 1. That morning, public officials and local media professionals will visit the Sewer District’s construction site in Bratenahl for an up-close and personal look at this impressive piece of machinery.

We will post photos of the equipment and crowd before Mackenzie enters the access shaft. We also will cover the event as the 300,000 pound cutter head is lifted by a crane and lowered 200 feet underground. Mackenzie will not be seen aboveground again until 2014 when nearly three miles of the Euclid Creek Tunnel is mined and she emerges near the intersection of Nottingham Road and St. Clair Avenue.

The Euclid Creek Tunnel is the first in a series of storage tunnels being constructed as a part of Project Clean Lake, the Sewer District’s 25-year, $3 billion program to drastically reduce the amount of combined sewage entering local waterways annually.

About the Euclid Creek Tunnel

The Euclid Creek Tunnel will start in Bratenahl, south of Interstate 90, and continue northeast to the District’s Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. There, the tunnel will continue under Lake Erie for about 3000 feet and pass under the shoreline near Green Creek at East 152nd Street. The tunnel will then head east, following Lake Shore Boulevard and Nottingham Road, and end at St. Clair Avenue.

The Euclid Creek Tunnel will be located 190 to 220 feet below ground. The tunnel will be 18,000 feet long, with a diameter of 24 feet. It will have the capacity to hold 52 million gallons of combined stormwater and wastewater. The estimated cost of construction for the Euclid Creek Tunnel is $198 million.

About Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)

Greater Cleveland’s earliest sewers (primarily within the City and its inner-ring suburbs) are combined sewers. Built around the turn of the 19th century, these sewers carry sewage, industrial waste, and stormwater in a single pipe. During heavy rains, there is a dramatic increase of water flowing through the combined sewers. When this happens, control devices may allow some of the combined wastewater and stormwater to overflow into area waterways—such as Lake Erie and Euclid Creek—to prevent urban flooding. This event is called a combined sewer overflow, or CSO, and harms our clean-water environment.

CONSTRUCTION: Trenching work to begin along Lakeshore during week of June 4

Beginning the week of June 4, Sewer District contractors will begin the latest phase of Euclid Creek Tunnel construction along Lakeshore Boulevard from East 156th Street to Sycamore Street.

The work includes open-cut construction methods in which a trench is dug along Lakeshore Boulevard, new sewer pipe is installed, the trench is filled, and the road is repaired.

To minimize traffic interruptions, this sewer work will be performed in small sections at a time, working from west to east. During each segment, the northernmost two lanes of Lakeshore will be closed to vehicular traffic. Construction is expected to last a total of three months.

The Euclid Creek Tunnel—a major component of Project Clean Lake—is a $197 million project to reduce pollution entering Lake Erie during heavy storms. 

If you have any questions about this phase of the project, leave us a comment below.

EUCLID CREEK TUNNEL: All you need to know in one easy pin

Our Euclid Creek Tunnel is one of several huge projects underway on the east side of Cleveland. This image we posted on Pinterest has the latest information and a fine overview to give you the project basics. For copies of this information as a handy information card, send us a request at community at neorsd dot org.

Source: Uploaded by user via Wally on Pinterest

UPDATE: Sewer District assists in fish-kill investigation along Rocky River

"We’ll continue to work on this until we exhaust all our leads. We are working with other entities as well. Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio EPA, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, everyone is working together to try and figure this one out." Sewer District Director of Watershed Programs Frank Greenland spoke to several media outlets this afternoon regarding the ongoing investigation of the possible fish kill along a stretch of Rocky River in the Cleveland Metroparks. The District is collecting water samples to aid in the investigation.

Here are stories that ran this evening on WKYC, WEWS and FOX8. UPDATE 2012 5/1: The Strongville Post featured a story in today's edition.

PROGRESS: Collinwood paper highlights Euclid Creek Tunnel plan, resident resources

The Collinwood Observer ran a feature on our Euclid Creek Tunnel earlier this month following a pair of neighborhood meetings about the project. As promised, we previously have shared a link about the tunnel's construction along Lakeshore, but the map above is a better full-screen resolution for reference.

Columnist Nan Kennedy closed her story with important information based on residents' common concerns. You can find all of our Euclid Creek Tunnel progress updates and several photos on our blog, and more details about our 25-year Project Clean Lake effort on our website.

COMMENTS: Kind words from the classroom

We love sharing clean-water fun with students of all ages, and we're even more excited when classes share their experiences in return.

Eighth-grade teacher Rachel Smith received some of our coloring books, posters, and pencils last month, and this morning we smiled reading her email:

Thank you so much for all the wonderful classroom materials you gave me, my co-teacher, and all my students. They loved seeing the posters and getting a closer look at how everything works at a treatment plant. Many students are not capable of visualizing the amount of water that the plants treat everyday, but these materials were a great help to give them a better understanding. Now, I do not have students questioning if their water is clean or not, because they have tools to see and learn from.

I cannot express my gratitude of the gift you have given my current students and future students. I am very gratefully that you were able to put this all together for me.

Again, thank you for everything.

Rachel Smith
8th Grade Science
E.B. Frink Middle School

These materials and more are available in our Wally Warehouse, your go-to resource for sewer, water, and environmental education products from your Sewer District.

TUNNEL: I love it when a TBM comes together.

Piece by piece, the gigantic tunnel digger that will burrow the underground route for the Sewer District's Euclid Creek Tunnel is arriving on site in Cleveland.

The behemoth is known as a tunnel boring machine, or TBM, and it will take several truckloads and a few more weeks to assemble.

The photo above shows the five primary pieces of the cutterhead. They will be welded together to create a large circle which will spin at the front of the TBM and do most of the tunneling work through the rocky underground.

Here is a photo of the same unit when it was preassembled for testing in February:

 

It was disassembled for transport, shipped from overseas, and is being trucked in pieces to Cleveland. It's quite a journey, but it takes a lot of equipment to dig an 18,000-foot tunnel 200 feet underground. The Euclid Creek Tunnel is one of seven tunnels that will be constructed under our Project Clean Lake program.

We'll share more details as assembly continues into May.

Photos courtesy NEORSD Director of Engineering & Construction Kellie Rotunno.