Metropolitan Water Tunnel Program

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-We may not be getting NSRL any time soon, but that doesnt mean there wont be any TBM’s digging new tunnels under the city….


“Through the Metropolitan Water Tunnel Program (Tunnel Program), MWRA will construct two new water supply tunnels that will provide redundancy for MWRA's existing Metropolitan Tunnel System, which includes the City Tunnel (1950), City Tunnel Extension (1963) and Dorchester Tunnel (1976). The Tunnel Program will also allow our aging existing water tunnel system to be rehabilitated without interrupting service. The Tunnel Program is in the preliminary design and environmental review stage. Final design will begin after preliminary design is complete, with tunnel construction planned to occur from approximately 2027 through 2038.”


Existing MWRA water system
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Proposed tunnels
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“The proposed Metropolitan Water Tunnel Program will consist of approximately 15 miles of deep rock tunnels and surface connections to provide redundancy to the existing Metropolitan Tunnel System in the Metropolitan Boston area.

As proposed, the new tunnel system will consist of a northern tunnel and a southern tunnel in and around the Metropolitan Boston area. Both tunnels are proposed to begin near the terminus of the Hultman Aqueduct and MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel in the town of Weston, Massachusetts. The northern tunnel is proposed to extend north with a connection to the MWRA water system in the vicinity of Waverly Oaks Road near the Belmont/Waltham line. The southern tunnel is also proposed to extend south with a connection to the MWRA water system in the Morton Street area near the American Legion Highway in Boston. The proposed tunnels will have intermediate connection points to other existing MWRA facilities along the alignment.”

“Final design is anticipated to start in 2024 with a target for the first tunnel construction contract bidding in 2027.”

https://www.mwra.com/mwtp/resources.html

“The Metropolitan Tunnel Redundancy Program was conceived to address several outstanding challenges, most notably the fact that the existing Metropolitan Tunnel System cannot be maintained or repaired nor can an emergency be readily addressed because shut down of the system is not currently possible without imposing a boilwater order.”

“The first and foremost goal of the program is an operational goal: to protect public health, provide sanitation and provide fire protection. The MWRA exists to provide these services. In support of this overall goal, the tunnel redundancy program is intended to:

  • Provide full redundancy for the metropolitan tunnel system.
  • Provide normal water service and fire protection when the existing tunnel system is out of service
  • Provide the ability to perform maintenance on existing tunnels year-round……
https://tucmagazine.org/mwra-metropolitan-boston-tunnel-redundancy-program-project-update/

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https://www.needhamchannel.org/2022/11/new-big-dig-set-for-needham-heights/

Cross section of what the existing metrowest water supply tunnel looks like.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroWest_Water_Supply_Tunnel
 
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This is fascinating and very cool. It's interesting how a project like this can happen and basically nobody will even notice. But try to build a transit tunnel and there will be years of controversy and legal fights. I realize water tunnels are much narrower bores and overall less complicated engineering, but still, why can't we just quietly bore some tunnels for a few trains to use?
 
That what I was thinking as well. The previous metrowest tunnel was bored with a tbm in the late 90’s to early 2000’s a few hundred feet below the towns of metrowest. Most ppl have no idea that this massive piece of infrastructure even exists. Pretty crazy to think when it was being built that out in some random leafy suburban town west of boston when ppl were grilling their hot dogs on the back porch that there were guys a few hundred feet below them who were digging a massive tunnel. Thats something youd expect in Boston but not Southborough! Pretty cool. From what I found the old tunnel is 14’ wide, 16.7 miles long, and cost $665 million. The new tunnels are 15 miles of tbm drilled tunnels in solid bedrock for $2.1 billion.

http://ftp.mwra.com/mwtp/assets/resources/board-ss-p/2024-03-13 SS Pres WA1 Overview.pdf

https://witsurvey.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/tough-times-for-the-mwra-and-the-rest-of-the-us/

https://clui.org/ludb/site/metro-west-water-tunnel
 
I was wondering about the construction project underway in the northeast quadrant of the Highland Avenue interchange in Needham. Now I know!
 
HenryAlan said:
This is fascinating and very cool. It's interesting how a project like this can happen and basically nobody will even notice. But try to build a transit tunnel and there will be years of controversy and legal fights. I realize water tunnels are much narrower bores and overall less complicated engineering, but still, why can't we just quietly bore some tunnels for a few trains to use?
Click to expand...
The MetroWest Tunnel runs three hundredsomething feet below my sister's house in Southborough, and her only concern of it was "WTF is this?" when the Order of Taking for a thirty foot wide easement through their mineral rights at the tunnel's current depth came up in the title exam when she and my brother-in-law were buying. I explained to them that it is a 14 foot diameter tunnel under a few hundred feet of bedrock and they would never have any idea is was even there. I doubt they've even thought of it since.
 
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