Big Pipe Contract Goes to Council
Maria Thi Mai
Today, Council will consider the largest contract to come before the City of Portland - $426m for the East Side Big Pipe. This is the last phase of the City of Portland’s combined sewer overflow (CSO) control program. A construction contract with the joint venture Kiewit-Bilfinger Berger (KBB) went to the City Council this week. Yesterday, (February 21), Sam and others briefed reporters from the Daily Journal of Commerce, KOPB, KATU, KEX, KOIN and the East County News.
Portland’s combined sewer system carries waste water from homes and businesses and storm water runoff from streets in the same pipes. When it rains, the pipes fill to capacity and some of the waste water overflows to the Willamette River. When the East Side Big Pipe is finished in 2011, there will be CSOs only three or four times a year on average instead of every time it rains.
The East Side Big Pipe project includes building a 6-mile, 22-foot diameter tunnel, 7 large tunnel shafts and several connecting pipelines. The pipe will collect sewage that now overflows during rainstorms and carry it to the City’s treatment plant in North Portland. KBB will use a huge tunnel boring machine to build the East Side Big Pipe. Shaft construction starts next month. Tunnel boring will begin in spring 2007.
Posted by Maria Thi Mai on February 22, 2006
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