Giant machine to bore sewage tunnel beneath Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - The first piece of a mammoth machine has been lowered beneath Fort Wayne for its mission to bore a 5-mile tunnel that will capture sewage overflows.

The boring machine's 200-ton cutterhead was lowered more than 200 feet underground last week in Indiana's second-largest city.

The Journal Gazette reports the 16-foot-long cutting device is one of many pieces that comprise the machine known as MamaJo.

Once the machine is fully assembled this spring it will start grinding through the bedrock under Fort Wayne to create a tunnel that will collect sewage and storm water overflows to keep them out of local waterways.

The $188 million tunnel is an integral part of a federal consent decree aimed at reducing the average number of combined sewer overflows to four annually by 2025.

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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net