Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced the start of construction on the Bay Park Conveyance Project in Nassau County.
The project will redirect treated water from the South Shore Reclamation Facility — formerly the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — to the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant’s ocean outfall. It is a critical component of the state’s sustained efforts to reduce nitrogen pollution and restore water quality in the Western Bays and surrounding South Shore Long Island communities.
Overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the design-build contractor Western Bays Constructors Joint Venture started construction on the diversion structure and the first microtunneling shaft for the project. The diversion structure will eventually direct treated water away from the current outfall in Reynolds Channel and into the new pump station being built as part of the project.
This fall, the contractor will be using this first microtunneling shaft to retrieve the Microtunnel Boring Machine after it completes the first segment of the new force main. The diversion structure will also become part of the foundation of the new pump station. This approach will save time off the construction schedule, as well as reduce the cost of the newly constructed pump station, exemplifying the advantages of design-build.
When completed, the Bay Park Conveyance Project will divert as much as 75 million gallons of treated water per day from Reynolds Channel and the Western Bays ecosystem and reduce up to 90 percent of the nitrogen loading. The resulting water quality response will improve regional resiliency and quality of life. The Nassau County Department of Public Works will own and operate the new facilities.
The project will convey fully treated water by: constructing a two-mile, 72-inch force main north from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant to the county-owned aqueduct that runs under Sunrise Highway; rehabilitating and lining a 7.3-mile stretch of the abandoned aqueduct; and constructing a 1.6-mile, 72-inch force main from the aqueduct to the existing Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant’s ocean outfall pipe, which is seven miles long and will carry treated water three miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. The new force main segments will be constructed using microtunneling 20 to 60 feet below the ground surface.
