Acting New York City DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza stands
in front of a giant drilling device that will bore a water tunnel
under the Hudson River between the Town of
Newburgh and Wappinger
TOWN OF NEWBURGH – The New York City Department of Environmental
Protection welcomed the public on Friday to witness the start of excavation
for the Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel.
The $1 billion project is designed to fix two leakages in the 85-mile
aqueduct, which is the longest tunnel in the world. The most crucial leak
will be fixed by a 2.5-mile bypass tunnel that will be drilled 600 feet
below the Hudson River between Newburgh and Wappinger.
Once the project is completed, millions of New Yorkers will have greater
access to clean drinking water. The project is said to be the largest
repair project in the 175-year history of New York City’s drinking
water supply.
“This is one the biggest repair projects that we’ve ever done,”
said Vincent Sapienza, acting commissioner of the New York City DEP. “We
think we have a great solution that will have a minimal impact on the
water supply in New York City. The repair that is going to be made will
last a century, so we really think it was the right thing to do.”
Additionally, the tunnel will be drilled by a state-of-the-art tunnel
boring machine with construction to begin next week and last approximately
four months. The tunnel boring machine (or TBM) has been dedicated as
NORA to honor noteworthy suffragist and civil engineering pioneer Nora
Stanton Blatch Deforest Barney.
Barney was the granddaughter of revolutionary women’s rights leader
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the first woman in the U.S. to earn an engineering
degree, which she received from Cornell University in 1905. Descendants
of Barney spoke at the announcement ceremony of their ancestor’s
legacy.
“My family and I welcome NORA, the tunnel boring machine, into our
family,” said Coline Jenkins, Barney’s granddaughter. “We
embrace NORA as a family member as she will follow family tradition of
groundbreaking.”
Jenkins’ son and Barney’s great-grandson, Eric Jenkins-Sahlin,
said there is much work still left to be done regarding encouraging women
to pursue careers in STEM fields.
“To put it in context, there has been a lot of progress since [Barney
received her engineering degree in 1905],” he said, “but today,
women continue to earn only about 20 percent of the engineering degrees
in the states.”
“There’s a lot of room for increased participation and inclusion
of women and people of color in the workforce in engineering and STEM
fields, but I think it’s great to commemorate women who have made
contributions and I don’t think that happens enough,” he said.
The DEP has been overseeing the leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct since the
1990s. In 2010, a plan was announced to fix the leaks starting in Newburgh.
This project is expected to create nearly 200 jobs over the next eight
years, most of which promise to be filled by local workers as per and
agreement between the DEP and the Hudson Valley Building and Construction
Trade Council.
