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The Homestead Avenue Interceptor

RCP Used on Hartford’s First Major ARRA-Funded Project

Reinforced concrete pipe is being used on the first major project in Hartford, Connecticut to proceed with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Homestead Avenue Interceptor (HAI) Extension project is part of the Metropolitan District’s Clean Water Project to reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO) to the Connecticut River. The state received $48.5 million in federal stimulus funds to help dozens of municipalities repair and update aging water and sewer infrastructure with “shovel-ready” projects that create immediate jobs for construction workers, designers and engineers.

Work includes the installation of 3,700 feet of 72-inch diameter PVC-lined reinforced concrete pipe (RCP) using microtunneling technology through varved clays up to 45 feet deep and the installation of 450 feet of 72-inch diameter RCP using open cut methods through congested city streets. Varved clay is clay with visible annual layers, formed by seasonal differences in erosion and organic content. This type of deposit is common in former glacial lakes.

The longest single microtunnel drive was 1,200 feet. The work includes microtunneling beneath I-84 as well as beneath active Amtrak railroad tracks. All excavated material is stockpiled and characterized prior to disposal.

The project extends the Homestead Avenue Interceptor to the Park River Interceptor. The HAI discharges combined sewage to the Gully Brook Conduit (GBC), which is primarily a storm water pipe, on Walnut Street north of I-84. This extension will reduce combined sewer flows to the Gully Brook Conduit from the HAI for flows up to the 1-year design storm. Along its route the new pipe will take combined sewer flows from the Chestnut Street Sewer, which is also connected to the GBC. As a result, the new pipe will reduce combined sewage flows at two primary CSO outfalls.

Tunnelling the entire HAI through a wet varved clay, with groundwater 7 to 10 feet below the surface, was selected to avoid the utilities, roads and rail tracks along the alignment. The $22.9 million project, which is sometimes up to 40 feet deep under parts of Hartford, is expected to be completed in the spring of 2011. The contractor was Northeast Remsco Construction, Inc. of Farmingdale, NJ.