What is the Gravity Pipeline Project?
Silicon Valley Clean Water’s long-anticipated gravity pipeline project continues to progress with site work and shaft construction activities in anticipation of delivery next July of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) from Germany. The $18.2 million TBM being built by Herrenknecht Tunneling Systems of Schwanau will be disassembled and shipped to Redwood City through one of four ports in Northern California and then reassembled on site.
Tunnel launch shaft sitework began in September northeast of the intersection of Shoreway Road and Redwood Shores Parkway/Holly Street intersection. Site work involves grading and general preparation for the shaft and tunneling construction activities that are planned to start in November 2019 and continue through the spring of 2022.
The gravity pipeline, which the TBM will install from the north edge of Inner Bair Island to the new facilities at the front of the treatment plant at 1400 Radio Road, is a major component of SVCW’s Regional Environmental Sewer Conveyance Upgrade (RESCU) program. RESCU improvements will enable the safe and reliable transport of wastewater from four-member agencies’ collection systems to the treatment plant.
