Boring job in Northwest Portland

By: Dan Carter//April 21, 2010//

Boring job in Northwest Portland

Dan Carter//April 21, 2010//

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The $74 million Balch Consolidation Conduit project consists of digging five shafts and boring 8,500 feet of tunnels to connect the combined sewage and storm-water runoff from the Balch Drainage Basin in Northwest Portland to the West Side Big Pipe and then to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant. James W. Fowler Co. is working on the project for Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. The 81-ton, 40-foot-long machine, named Candace Jean, will be tunneling at depths of up to 70 feet below the surface at an anticipated rate of 30 feet per shift. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.