| May 9, 2003
News Release Media photo opportunity, Monday, May 12, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: A 500-ton crane will pick up and set the three main sections of the 150-ton Lovat tunnel boring machine being used for this construction project. The crane will set the boring machine in its shaft at 42nd Avenue South and South Norfolk Street in the Nelson Trucking Co. yard at 9777 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., Seattle. Construction of a 4-million-gallon, 14-foot-diameter wastewater storage and treatment tunnel will begin in late May as part of the King County's Henderson/M.L. King CSO Project in the Rainier Beach community of Seattle. The Henderson/M.L. King project will improve water quality in Lake Washington by providing major new protection from combined sewer overflows, or CSOs. A CSO is caused when stormwater and sewage combine during extreme storms and overload the sewer system. A huge tunnel-boring machine will drive 3,100 lineal feet under 42nd Avenue South in the public right-of-way at depths of 30 to 100 feet. Tunneling will begin from the south at 42nd Avenue and South Norfolk Street and break through at 42nd Avenue and South Fairbanks Street on the north. The tunneling, to take about four months, is about 30 percent of the 2-mile-long project. Smaller-diameter tunnels will be bored under Interstate 5 and railroad tracks at Norfolk Street and Airport Way South. King County contractors are also installing pipelines in open-cut trenches and building two flow regulator stations at the north and south portals of the storage and treatment tunnel. As part of the $77 million project, King County's wastewater treatment utility is also upgrading its Henderson Pump Station at Seward Park Avenue South and South Henderson Street to carry flows to the new storage and treatment tunnel. The sewer system in Rainier Beach is more than 50 years old. Each year, 15 to 30 overflows totaling an estimated 30 million to 60 million gallons of combined wastewater and stormwater occur in the area and reach Lake Washington. The Henderson/M.L. King project will improve the system and add capacity and the ability to convey, store and treat wastewater and stormwater. Working with City of Seattle Public Utilities, the Wastewater Treatment Division of King County's Department of Natural Resources and Parks is managing the project. Tri-State Construction Inc. of Bellevue is King County's prime contractor for the project. NW Boring/Kenny, J.V. is the tunnel subcontractor. For more information about the project, visit the Web site , call the project's construction hotline at (206) 684-1251 (TTY 711), or send an e-mail message to hendersoncso@kingcounty.gov. King County's wastewater treatment utility protects public health and water quality by serving 18 cities, 15 sewer districts and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Related Information
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