Potomac River Tunnel

Contract B Tunnel System Construction

Design-Build

38°53’00.8″N 77°02’48.2″W / Washington, D.C., USA

Quick Facts

DC Water

Client

2

TBMs used

5.5

mile-long main tunnel

18 feet internal diameter, 100 feet deep

93%

reduction of CSOs

into the Potomac River in an average year of rainfall

More clean water

The next major phase of the DC Clean Rivers Project

Part of DC Water’s $2.99B Clean Rivers Project, a vast program to improve the water quality in the region, the project is a major environmental initiative designed to control combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and improve water quality in the Potomac River. The purpose of this project is to collect and store combined sewer system discharges and stormwater run-off during storm events that exceed the capacity of the combined sewer system along the Potomac River in the District and convey them to DC Water’s Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant at Blue Plains. The main tunnel will cross variable geological conditions (clay, alluvium, hard rock) and will pass close to Washington DC’s iconic monuments. It will require the use of two tunnel boring machines (TBMs), customized specifically for these soil conditions. Ancillary structures comprise of shafts, adits connecting to the main tunnel, and near surface structures which link the new infrastructure to the existing sewage system. The project will increase the capacity of the sewer system using deep storage tunnels and will significantly decrease CSO overflow events impacting the Potomac River, the fourth-largest river along the US East Coast. Halmar, as part of a JV, is committed to completing this important project through a sustainable delivery approach.

Additional key facts:

$

$819M contract value

$

6 large underground diversion chambers

$

9 shafts

$

4 adits