Sudbury tunnel project wins U.S. award

R.V. Anderson Associates of Toronto has won the American Public Works Association Project of the Year Award for the City of Greater Sudbury South End Sewage Rock Tunnel Project.

The project won in the environment ($25 to $75 million) category.

R.V. Anderson was retained to find ways to solve problems with Sudbury’s existing sewer tunnel system in order to relieve basement flooding and sewage overflows into the local water courses.

The engineering consultants planned, designed and oversaw a project to expand the sewer’s capacity, a project that involved blasting a 6.5-kilometre tunnel network through bedrock 25 metres below the surface.

The expanded sewer network enabled six existing sewage pump stations to be de-comissioned. The closures are expected to save about $17 million over the next 60 years.

The Sudbury project also won the Ontario Public Works Association’s 2010 Project of the Year award in the structures category.