A massive tunnel is being dug under D.C. to capture sewage and stormwater before it overflows into the Potomac River.
A Post photographer and other visitors were recently lowered by a crane roughly 100 feet underground to view one of the city’s largest infrastructure projects.
DC Water crews are building the 5½-mile long, 100-foot deep and 18-foot wide Potomac River Tunnel using two massive boring machines to grind through dirt and rock. The machines were named after Emily and Mary Edmonson, sisters who were D.C.-area abolitionists.
Once completed, the tunnel is designed to reduce — by 93 percent — the stormwater and sewage that overflows into the river during heavy rains, DC Water officials said. The captured stormwater and sewage will be sent to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Southwest, according to DC Water.
The recent visit, down a shaft near Ohio Drive SW in West Potomac Park, allowed dozens of observers to step into the tunnel where the vast machines dig as part of the $819 million project.
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