TBM Nora Goes Underground
Last month, we marked the next phase of the Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel program — the largest repair project in the 175-year history of New York City’s drinking water supply. Workers in Newburgh began to lower the $30 million tunnel boring machine (TBM) into a subsurface chamber that is located 845 feet below the ground. The TBM (also known as “Nora”) is currently being stored in 22 pieces. It will take workers approximately 4 months to assemble Nora.
Nora is one of the world’s most advanced tunnel boring machines. She measures more than 470 feet long and weights upwards of 2.7 million pounds. The TBM was named in honor of Nora Stanton Blatch Deforest Barney, a noted suffragist and the first woman in the United States to earn a college degree in civil engineering. Partaking in the dedication ceremony were Nora’s descendants, including granddaughter Coline Jenkins, who observed that both the machine and its namesake were “ground breakers, here to overcome obstacles and create a stronger society for millions of citizens.”
The contruction of the bypass tunnel makes part of a $1 billion project to repair two areas of leakage within the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct, the longest tunnel in the world. The primary leak will be eliminated through the construction of the 2.5-mile bypass tunnel, which will be drilled 600 feet below the Hudson River from Newburgh to Wappinger.
The start of tunneling to repair the Delaware Aqueduct is a major milestone in the history of New York City’s water supply system. While the City has added new facilities to its water supply over the past century, repairs approaching this magnitude have been few and far between. The effort to fix the Delaware Aqueduct is by far the most complex DEP has undertaken, and it highlights the absolute need to keep our public works in a state of good repair.
