Sign of Progress for Bypass Tunnel
We recently said farewell to the huge headframe that lifted machines, pipes, pulverized rock, and workers at Shaft 5B of the Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel. The tall, white headframe was needed for the heaviest lifting on the project, including the tunnel boring machine, stone from the excavation of the 2.5-mile-long tunnel, and the steel segments that were used to line the new tunnel.
With that work finished, the frame has now been dismantled. Moving forward, shaft 5B will be serviced by a more conventional heavy-duty crane that can move workers and equipment down the shaft and into the tunnel.
The headframe had become something of a landmark in the Town of Newburgh, where it towered over Route 9W for the past several years. Workers now lining the bypass tunnel with the final layer of concrete in anticipation for the 2022 shutdown that will connect it to structurally sound portions of the Delaware Aqueduct on both sides of the Hudson River.
