Sliplining of Old Sunrise Highway Aqueduct Underway with More Than 6,500 Linear Feet of Pipe Installed

 The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced the successful completion of the Bay Park Conveyance Project’s first microtunneling operation. The Project is a partnership between New York State and Nassau County to improve water quality and storm resiliency in Long Island's Western Bays by upgrading existing wastewater management infrastructure.

Microtunneling began in April 2022. To date, Western Bays Constructors, the Project’s design-builder, accomplished a total drive length of approximately 1,437 linear feet between Bay Park Shaft 2 and Bay Park Shaft 1.

The microtunnel boring machine MARSH-MELLOW, named by students at Fulton Avenue Elementary, Oceanside School, will continue underground from Bay Park Shaft 2 to Bay Park Shaft 3, and then continue north to complete the two-mile tunnel route from the South Shore Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) to Sunrise Highway. On the east side of the Project corridor, a second microtunneling route extends more than 1.5 miles from Sunrise Highway to the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP).

In addition to microtunneling, the Project is using sliplining to repurpose an existing aqueduct beneath Sunrise Highway. Western Bays Constructors began sliplining activities in March, and has successfully installed more than 6,500 linear feet of pipe. Sliplining will continue to progress at more than 20 work sites, called pits, along Sunrise Highway.

The Bay Park Conveyance Project will reduce nitrogen pollution in the Western Bays by redirecting treated water from the South Shore WRF in Bay Park to the Cedar Creek WPCP to be discharged approximately three miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean through an existing ocean outfall that diffuses the water and disperses it. In total, the Bay Park Conveyance Project will construct 10.9 miles of new pipeline using microtunneling and sliplining. A new pump station will be constructed at the South Shore WRF.

The Bay Park Conveyance Project builds on $830 million in State and federal funds previously invested in the multi-year resilient rebuild of the South Shore WRF. These projects, combined with other State and County investments in resiliency, support the restoration of the Western Bays, protect important marine resources, and boost local economies with the added benefit of better protection to coastal communities against future damage from storms.

NOTE: Photos of microtunnel shaft completion and machinery attached.