The Deep Tunnel is a vast, 110-mile-long, 30-year-old, $3 billion-dollar project. It isn't yet completed, but already is proving insufficient to the task of draining the climate-change-stoked rains hitting the Chicago area. According to a story Tuesday in the Sun-Times, the tunnel is getting fuller faster. That's bad news, particularly for homeowners in the Southwest suburbs, whom the Deep Tunnel was supposed to protect from flooding.
I've been down the Deep Tunnel, twice. Once when they were flooding the Thornton Quarry in 2015. And for the first time in 1999, a story not before posted here:
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| In the Deep Tunnel, 1999 |
In 2005, in the basement of a house that hasn't been built, the possessions of a boy who hasn't been born will stay nice and dry during a major rainstorm because of work going on right now 310 feet under Torrence Avenue.
The second-to-last leg of the Deep Tunnel Project is creeping slowly forward, a foot at a time, as a gigantic digging machine eats into the dense dolemite limestone.
Work is conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by two dozen miners who, with their beards, coveralls and miner's helmets, are a vision from Harlan County, Ky., working to bring Chicago into the 21st century.
The Deep Tunnel began 93 miles and 27 years ago. Every four days, on average, rainwater would back up a sewer system somewhere in Chicago, sending raw sewage spilling into the already polluted Chicago River. The tunnel was conceived as a man-made underground river to carry away storm overflow.
"This is the second greatest accomplishment in our history," said new Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Martin Sandoval. "The first was the reversal of the river."
The Deep Tunnel is so vital to the growing Chicago area that when a small section collapsed in June, beaches were closed and water supplies were compromised. Interest in the unseen tunnels grew after that, and the Water Reclamation District invited the media down Wednesday to see what they are up to.
Digging, mostly. To get to the digging, you step into a circular yellow metal cage, big enough for four people, that is lowered into a hole in the ground.
The cage touches ground in a cavernous area, blasted from the rock, where the gigantic digging machine was lowered and assembled in 18 separate pieces. An electric train takes miners to the machine, two miles away and moving forward at nearly a mile a month.
The noise is tremendous. Forty-seven cutting heads spin into the limestone across a rotating circle 27 feet wide. Every 7 feet, the machine releases a pair of "gripper pads" — disc-brakelike devices, 5 feet wide, that push out against the walls of the cave to keep the machine from spinning — and moves forward. The pads reset, and the digger's spinning face grinds onward.
Miners must be alert. Sensors monitor for methane gas. They run into fault lines, or different types of rock — 1,800 feet of the tunnel had to go through shale, which is not as strong as the limestone, and the roof of the tunnel had to be specially reinforced as the machine moved forward, to avoid collapse.
Meanwhile, miners atop the drill bore a pair of 5-foot-deep holes into the roof and attach a semicircular metal band with 5-foot-long hollow metal rods that are driven into the holes, spreading wide to set into the stone and help support the ceiling, which feels wet and crumbly.
Along the length of the two miles, groundwater glistens on the walls and occasionally pours in cascades that will be shut off with grout before the interior of the tunnel — a blanket of concrete a foot thick — is poured. The crushed rock is removed by a conveyor belt and sold.
Not only will the Deep Tunnel keep basements dry and the Chicago River pure — a bass fishing contest will be held on the river next year — but it also provides a good source of crushed limestone. The new United Parcel Service facility at 75th and La Grange is sitting on stone from the Deep Tunnel.
The second-to-last leg of the Deep Tunnel Project is creeping slowly forward, a foot at a time, as a gigantic digging machine eats into the dense dolemite limestone.
Work is conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by two dozen miners who, with their beards, coveralls and miner's helmets, are a vision from Harlan County, Ky., working to bring Chicago into the 21st century.
The Deep Tunnel began 93 miles and 27 years ago. Every four days, on average, rainwater would back up a sewer system somewhere in Chicago, sending raw sewage spilling into the already polluted Chicago River. The tunnel was conceived as a man-made underground river to carry away storm overflow.
"This is the second greatest accomplishment in our history," said new Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Martin Sandoval. "The first was the reversal of the river."
The Deep Tunnel is so vital to the growing Chicago area that when a small section collapsed in June, beaches were closed and water supplies were compromised. Interest in the unseen tunnels grew after that, and the Water Reclamation District invited the media down Wednesday to see what they are up to.
Digging, mostly. To get to the digging, you step into a circular yellow metal cage, big enough for four people, that is lowered into a hole in the ground.
The cage touches ground in a cavernous area, blasted from the rock, where the gigantic digging machine was lowered and assembled in 18 separate pieces. An electric train takes miners to the machine, two miles away and moving forward at nearly a mile a month.
The noise is tremendous. Forty-seven cutting heads spin into the limestone across a rotating circle 27 feet wide. Every 7 feet, the machine releases a pair of "gripper pads" — disc-brakelike devices, 5 feet wide, that push out against the walls of the cave to keep the machine from spinning — and moves forward. The pads reset, and the digger's spinning face grinds onward.
Miners must be alert. Sensors monitor for methane gas. They run into fault lines, or different types of rock — 1,800 feet of the tunnel had to go through shale, which is not as strong as the limestone, and the roof of the tunnel had to be specially reinforced as the machine moved forward, to avoid collapse.
Meanwhile, miners atop the drill bore a pair of 5-foot-deep holes into the roof and attach a semicircular metal band with 5-foot-long hollow metal rods that are driven into the holes, spreading wide to set into the stone and help support the ceiling, which feels wet and crumbly.
Along the length of the two miles, groundwater glistens on the walls and occasionally pours in cascades that will be shut off with grout before the interior of the tunnel — a blanket of concrete a foot thick — is poured. The crushed rock is removed by a conveyor belt and sold.
Not only will the Deep Tunnel keep basements dry and the Chicago River pure — a bass fishing contest will be held on the river next year — but it also provides a good source of crushed limestone. The new United Parcel Service facility at 75th and La Grange is sitting on stone from the Deep Tunnel.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, Oct, 21, 1999
I think it's obvious with two of the old quarries almost filled to the top, they are going to need a couple of more old quarries added to the system to relieve the pressure on the current ones.
ReplyDeleteAnd if there aren't any more old unused ones, they may need to go into the quarry business just to create more reservoirs.
Climate change, which the truly insane Re Thug Licons insist isn't happening, actually is happening & one result is far more rain here!
Someone mentioned -- it might have even been in the comments of one of your posts -- how such engineering marvels would never be done, or even started today.
ReplyDeleteIt made me sad.
mostly because it is true. Our great ideas die well before they are killed by the right. we never dream big anymore, we just float by on easy ideas and mediocrity, coasting on the suit tails of greats who came before us.
Maybe one day we will again call upon our great nation to toil in the mud and raise industry from nothing. Subways and skyways, solar and safety, paved and graded; with no expense spared and everyone paid fairly.
I hear you. I toured Hoover Dam once, and remember looking at some enormous metal door, specifically the painfully precise hinge, and feeling like a modern Egyptian touring a pyramid. We've taught ourselves to declare mediocrity perfection.
DeleteI know an architect who designed a city post office. I will refrain from naming the city.
DeleteThe plans were delivered under budget and hearkened back to the grand designs of the 1920s-40s. They catered towards the location, its history, the community, and pushed things beyond average.
The response from the governments were "We know it's under budget, but the public will not believe it and we will catch hell for it being too good looking. please tone it down quite a bit."
We deserve our beige endings
Good article on an nteresting subject. Nice that you get into such obscure places.
ReplyDeleteClimate change is real, and the filling of the tunnels proves it. Excessive rainfall is getting both heavier and more frequent. A storm that drops seven or eight inches of rain overnight was once off the charts and unheard of...and not all that long ago. Now such storms, both localized and regional, seem to occur every couple of years...or even less.
ReplyDeleteThe kid born in 2005 will lose all the possessions that are stored in his parents' basement while he is away at school, because a torrential downpour will flood it with three or four feet of water. It happened to me in the 70s, when the Deep Tunnel was still on the drawing boards. Chicago is gonna need a bigger tunnel. But Mother Nature always bats last.
It is such a pleasure to come to a site where the commenters are experts on engineering and climate modeling.
ReplyDeleteI learn so much.
I too took the tour of the Hoover dam before it was closed to the public after 9/11. Incredible
Proof of climate change does indeed exist but we're told by climate scientists to not let today's weather or climate event be the thing that informs us about what climate change is all about.
Chicago was built on marshy swampland and has been flooding since before we got here
The rainwater used to flow into the lake
The river was reversed but there were times when the rainwater combined with our water usage washing machines toilets dishwashers showers and such would overwhelm the sewer system the water would flow into the river and we would have to open the locks and let the polluted water into the lake.
Occasionally we still do this because the capacity of this enormous engineering project doesn't allow for the storage of prolonged rainfall.l events
I lived in a building that was constructed in 1893
Been there a few years and haven't had so much as a drop in the basement which used to be the place where a lot of the flood water was stored.
The deep tunnel project has been an amazing success as you noted in your post.
It was also incredibly expensive and it's unlikely that they're going to find more money to do more work in our area the system is complete there are similar projects that are being considered north of us so that cities like Kenosha and Milwaukee can also overcome their flooding problems
Tom
Tom,
DeleteI am reminded of some of the quotes from Texas legislators as to why warning systems were not invested in -- despite many warnings of their need and major cost saving ability -- in the areas that included Camp Mystic. The legislators said that it was too expensive, a waste of money, and there were better places to allocate those funds. Where did those funds go instead? They went to build the sheriff a new office.
Chris Tomlinson of the Huston Chronical has a very nice piece on it, as well as being interviewed on a podcast about it. It's worth the listen -- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cltomlinson_green-ribbons-for-camp-mystic-plus-calls-activity-7348825433984901122-_f6z?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAANggQgB2UHfM6FcI20hoaH-V0Y7p1btYGk
I could easily go on and on, but will save you the boring chatter. The truth is, the money's there, no one wants to spend that money unless it lines their pockets or puts their name on the project.
The MWRD noted last week that the McCook reservoir has filled to capacity 6 times in 2026, and as a reference frame contrasted it with the reminder that it filled to capacity 5 times from 2021-2025 collectively. The Thornton reservoir has never come close to capacity.
DeleteMilwaukee, Washington DC & London England are all building variations of the Deep Tunnel project, after seeing that it actually has worked.
DeleteWhen the Deep Tunnel project was proposed I thought the money would be better spent by rebuilding Chicago’s sewer system by installing separate sanitary and storm drains. I realize that entails digging up every street in Chicago. But it would allow rain to go directly to the river or lake and sanitary waste to the Sanitary District. I never read anything about it being considered. Too bad. Elgin, and many other suburbs, have this dual system.
ReplyDeleteAre you aware of the sheer size of Chicago? Chicago has more than 4,000 miles of streets and an additional 1,900 miles of alleys. A project like that would take a century to complete. And the disruptions would be mind-boggling.
DeleteA for Tom, I have never claimed to be an expert on either engineering or climate modeling. But I have been both a weather junkie and a Chicago history junkie for most of my life. And I did take a weather class. Taught by Tom Skilling.
Growing up in Lansing, I drove past the Thornton Quarry thousands of times. In grade school, my science class took a field trip there to look for fossils in the limestone. I always marveled at the vastness of the thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that photo the other day of the Quarry filled to the top with water, I almost shit myself. We are bound and determined to destroy this planet.