FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)— Wednesday night’s rain was the first time the deep rock tunnel was put into use since it has been fully operational.
According to the deputy director of Fort Wayne City Utilities, Matthew Wirtz, this project entered the conversation nearly 30 years ago. Negotiations began in 2007 and ground broke in 2017. More than seven years after breaking ground, city officials and members of the public gathered to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the $400 million project on Thursday.
INSIDE LOOK: Deep Rock Tunnel construction complete
“Our sewers before didn’t have enough capacity to get it here to the plant,” Wirtz said. “So, then it would spill out into the river.”
The purpose of this new infrastructure, a 5-mile tunnel stretching from Foster Park to the Maumee River east of downtown, is to reduce the amount of sewer overflow spilling into Fort Wayne’s rivers. The fully operational deep rock tunnel will reduce that by as much 94%.
The tunnel can accommodate up to 850 million gallons of water per day. That water eventually winds up at the pump shaft. The four pumps in that shaft transport a total of 40 million gallons of water a day across the Maumee River to be treated, instead of being spilled straight into the river.