A joint venture (JV) between Granite and Super Excavators has been awarded a contract valued at around $324.8m by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) for the Big Creek Tunnel project in Cleveland, Ohio.
The contract includes designing and constructing a major sewage infrastructure tunnel intended to improve regional water quality.
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The Big Creek Tunnel (BCT) forms part of Project Clean Lake, a 24-year programme initiated in 2011 by the NEORSD and budgeted at $3bn.
The project aims to comply with Clean Water Act standards and is the final phase of seven large-diameter combined sewer overflow (CSO) storage tunnels under the initiative.
Once completed, the new system is expected to reduce combined sewer overflow to Big Creek and its tributaries by about 550 million gallons each year.
Granite’s responsibilities will include constructing 22,300ft of 20ft-diameter tunnel, as well as 3,115ft of additional tunnels comprising adits, a connecting tunnel, an overflow tunnel, and a dewatering tunnel.
Other planned works involve the installation of multiple shafts, consolidation sewers, diversion and gate structures, an overflow box culvert, and the necessary site restoration and utilities.
The new tunnel system, to be built underground between Linndale, Cleveland, and Brooklyn, will operate at depths ranging from 50ft to 100ft below ground.
It is designed to capture and store a mix of sanitary sewage and stormwater from 11 CSO outfalls, thereby decreasing the volume of untreated sewage entering Lake Erie and related waterways.
Granite tunnel division vice president Jim Nickerson said: “The scale and complexity of this project align directly with Granite’s strengths in large-diameter tunnelling and shaft construction.
“This is a major wastewater infrastructure project, and it will strengthen system performance and protect local waterways across Northeast Ohio.”
Design work for the BCT began in 2024 and concluded in early 2026. Construction is scheduled to start in autumn 2026, with completion anticipated by winter 2030.
The approach will largely rely on trenchless construction using a tunnel boring machine, with seven shaft locations expected to have visible surface activity during the works.
In August 2026, Hydrostor awarded Granite a contract worth around $31m to undertake early site works for the Willow Rock Energy Storage Centre project in Kern County, California.
