The Metropolitan Sewer District will be installing 28 miles of tunnels in St. Louis, from four to 30 feet in diameter. Next summer, as part of the project, Project Clear, MSD will bore a tunnel under Brentwood Boulevard at Russell Avenue and install a tunnel up to 25 feet in diameter the length of Russell Avenue.
MSD could have chosen blasting, tunneling or chipping to open a trench to install the tunnel on Russell — they chose to blast, according to MSD spokesperson, Lance LeComb.
See more details on Project Clear, including how blasting works.
Joe Howard rents a home on Russell Avenue at Manderly Drive, and and he’s worried about that.
“It’s loud enough here with the train tracks and trucks — I can’t imagine blasting,” he said on Monday. “I can’t believe there’s not a better way than blasting.”
He said everyone along Russell will be upset. He said all the others own their homes. “I’m sure they all have the same (water) issues I have in the basement,” he said. “This is the lowest part of Brentwood. That’s the creek right there.”
He said a $50,000 pump keeps his basement dry, “otherwise I’d be underwater every time it rained hard. You can’t walk across the street when it rains hard.”
Blasting was chosen because it was the most cost-effective, LeComb said Monday. He said there are exceptions, but “for that particular purpose the difference between using blasting and other means of digging out a tunnel — that was the most cost-effective means for us.”
LeComb said home owners shouldn’t be worried.
“Many people, if the word blasting comes up, they think Western movie, and it’s nothing like that. It’s very localized, focused,” LeComb said. “The charge is designed to take out that rock, and to limit the vibrations that would reach other areas. They drill holes into that rock, insert a charge, set off the charge, remove the rock. And keep going, and doing that over and over.”
He said earth or mats go over the blasting area before before the charge is set off to minimize the effect.
Doug,
According to Project Clear, the trunk line section along Russell will have a diameter that equals 4 to 6.5 feet. The DEPTH of the pipe will be 25 feet.