Tucker, Young, Jackson, Tull, Inc. (TYJT) was the key sub-consultant with major participation in the development of the preliminary design presented in the Basis of Design Report for the Upper Rouge CSO Tunnel (URT) Facility. As part of the DWSD’s long term plans to reduce Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) discharges to the Rouge River, a 201 Million Gallons (MG) URT facility is proposed to effectively capture the wet weather flows conveyed through existing sewer infrastructure located in western Detroit from 17 designated outfalls that historically discharge to upper tributary of the Rouge River. Once implemented, the URT facility will capture and later discharge to the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the vast majority of the presently uncontrolled CSO from the 17 outfalls in the City of Detroit, three outfalls in Dearborn Heights and eight outfalls in Redford Township. At present these outfalls, combine to annually, discharge over a billion gallons of untreated combined wastewater directly into the local rivers. As set forth in the MDEQ NPDES Permit, after the completion of the URT project, the frequency of the untreated discharge from these outfalls will be reduced to less than one discharge event per year on average.

Scope and Services Provided:
TYJT was responsible for the management of the preliminary design of all the near surface facilities for the project which included but were not limited to the flow regulating structures (weirs, gates etc.), diversion chambers, drop shaft head-works (vortex generator), drop shafts above top of the rock, surge control structures, surge control volume shafts, surface collectors, sewers and associated structures and all site civil related work including utilities, roads, landscaping, security fencing etc. TYJT was responsible for preparing civil and structural designs for the near surface facilities. Additionally, TYJT assisted the prime in developing the preliminary documents to evaluate the limits of property acquisition from private and public owners for the project.

Project Highlights:
The key near surface components of the proposed URT facility include:

• Seventeen diversion chambers and two diversion manholes to intercept and reroute the flow to the new collector sewers.
  
  
• 18 near surface collector sewers to convey the flow to the drop shafts.
  
  
• Surge control structures (SCS) to protect the URT facility infrastructure from the tunnel surges.
  
  
• Surge control volume (SCV) shafts to store the surge volume occurring from the surge events.
  
  
• A 3200 feet long, 5-foot diameter inverted siphon that carries the flow from URT pumping station to the Northwest Interceptor for further conveyance to Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant.
  
  
• Near surface components of the dewatering pumping station including Pumping Station superstructures and associated electrical, operation & maintenance buildings, switchyard, utilities, access roads etc.

The specific surface work sites were selected to minimize the impact on the wetlands (less than 0.5 acres of wetlands impacted by the URT facility) and to the extent practical, remain outside the 100 year flood plains.

The key deep below top of the rock components of the proposed facility include: (1) approximately 37,000 feet long, 20/34.5 feet in diameter and 135/180 deep tunnel to capture 201 MG of CSO, 14 drop shafts, (2) 11 deep connecting ADIT connections and, (3) a 100-MGD capacity dewatering pumping station.

Status of Project:
The Basis of Design Report is completed