Back on September 9, 2019 I wrote about Louisville Metro Sewer District (MSD) Waterway Protection Tunnel project and its exhibit that I helped contribute to at the Kentucky Science Center. Well, the boring machine (aka Bumblebee) has completed it journey of about 4 miles under the city. It breached the wall of its extraction hole on September 30, 2020 near Lexington Road and Grinstead Drive. The journey took about 20 months and removed more than 625,000 tons of material.
The Kentucky Science Center has an interactive display for the Metro Sewer District (MSD) Waterway Protection Tunnel project. This project is a 4 mile (6.43 km) tunnel 200 feet (60.96 m) under the city to store up to 55 million gallons (208 million liters) of storm runoff water. It will take at least 3 years to complete.
As of this writing, the tunnel was 15% dug. I found the display really well done and resourceful way to divert storm water from the sewer system instead of using basins. The future will show us how well this system will work. I encourage you if in the Louisville area to visit the Kentucky Science Center as see this exhibit. Look out the windows on either side of it as it has some views riverfront and a MSD sewer line project.
Included in the exhibit are 3 core samples from the test drillings. If you look close you can see different fossils in them (horn coral and colonial coral).
I was contacted months ago by the Cubero media company that created this display. They asked for permission to use some images from this blog site in the display. It was nice to see me given credit on one of the screens.