CHESHIRE, CT The Lane Construction Corporation and its parent Salini Impregilo have won a $580-million contract for the Northeast Boundary Tunnel (NEBT) project in Washington, D.C. The NEBT will be a large, deep sewer tunnel that will increase the capacity of the District's sewer system, significantly mitigating the frequency, magnitude, and duration of sewer flooding. It will also help improve the water quality of the Anacostia River. 

The joint-venture formed by Lane's subsidiary, S.A. Healy, and Salini Impregilo won the design-build contract after being identified as the best value proposer by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). Lane has a 70-percent stake in the joint-venture and Salini Impregilo the remaining 30 percent.

The NEBT is the biggest component of DC Water's Clean Rivers Project. It will be 50 feet to 160 feet below ground and run 27,000 feet from just south of Robert F. Kennedy Stadium to the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue NW and 6th Street NW. It will be aligned to intersect the existing chronic flood areas along Rhode Island Avenue NW.

In times of flooding, the tunnel will receive flows from the sewer system captured by diversion facilities and convey them to DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The NEBT project will also include the construction of ventilation control facilities, storm water inlets, and green infrastructure.

Once it is connected to the other Clean Rivers Project tunnels, the NEBT will help reduce combined sewer overflows to the Anacostia River by 98 percent and the chance of flooding in the areas it serves from about 50 percent to seven percent in any given year.

Work is expected to begin in September 2017 and be completed in 2023 - two years ahead of the Consent Decree schedule.

Lane's S.A. Healy and Salini Impregilo are also working on the Anacostia River Tunnel, another component of the Clean Rivers Project.