Construction resumes on final Brightwater tunnel

Courtesy Bright

Construction on the final section of Brightwater’s 13-mile conveyance pipeline resumed yesterday as contractor Jay Dee Coluccio (JDC) put its newly rebuilt tunnel boring machine “Elizabeth” back into action right on schedule.

King County hired joint venture contractor JDC last spring to complete construction on the remaining 1.9-mile segment of the four-mile BT-3 tunnel, which is being built as part of the Brightwater Treatment System project.

JDC successfully completed the adjoining four-mile eastbound BT-4 tunnel from Point Wells to the Ballinger Way portal in Shoreline last June, uniquely positioning the contractor to continue tunneling to complete the BT-3 tunnel.

“We’re off to a good start with our final push to get the Brightwater tunnel completed,” said Gunars Sreibers, Brightwater project manager with King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division. “It’s a complex project and we’re very confident in the contractor’s ability to get the job done so we can get the Brightwater tunnel in service in 2012.

Construction on the BT-3 tunnel, which runs from Brightwater’s North Kenmore Portal to the Ballinger Way portal in Shoreline, had been suspended since June 2009 after inspections revealed significant damage to another machine nicknamed “Rainier”.

Last February, King County Executive Dow Constantine determined that completing the tunnel with that machine would likely result in unacceptable cost overruns and project delays. King County instead hired JDC to use its existing machine and crew to complete the job. The “Rainier” machine remains idled about 300 feet below ground in Lake Forest Park. It will be disassembled and removed through the North Kenmore portal.

King County originally contracted with Vinci, Parsons and Frontier-Kemper (VPFK) to build both the BT-3 and BT-2 tunnels. In June 2010, VPFK successfully completed the 2.2-mile eastbound BT-2 tunnel after repairing another damaged tunnel boring machine nicknamed “Helene” back in February. VPFK remains under contract with King County to complete the final lining in the BT-3 tunnel.

The Brightwater project construction has made significant progress to date. King County has completed 11 of the 13 miles of conveyance tunneling, and construction on the treatment plant north of Woodinville is more than 90 percent completed. The Brightwater Treatment Plant is scheduled to begin operating in August 2011.

Additional information about the Brightwater project is available at the King County webpage.

People enjoy clean water and a healthy environment because of King County's wastewater treatment program. The county’s Wastewater Treatment Division protects public health, the environment and the economy by serving 17 cities, 17 local sewer districts and more than 1.5 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Formerly called Metro, the regional clean-water agency, now operated by King County, has been preventing water pollution for nearly 50 years.