Duct Fabricators helps clean up Lake Erie by going underground

SMACNA Cleveland’s Duct Fabricators Inc., based in Cleveland, Ohio, is helping keep roughly 4 billion gallons of untreated waste out of Lake Erie every year with its work on the $73 million Easterly Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station (ETDPS) project, one of the largest combined sewer pump station projects in the United States.

Built around the turn of the 19th century, Greater Cleveland’s earliest sewer tunnels carry sewage, industrial waste, and stormwater in a single pipe. ETDPS—located 35 feet below the existing Euclid Creek Tunnel and Dugway Storage Tunnels—will capture up to 160 million-gallons-per-day of excess flow in a controlled fashion. The pump station is designed to keep the untreated raw water from entering the lake unchecked.

The Easterly Tunnel is a massive 140 feet long by 56 feet wide by 66 feet high. Two 40-foot egress shafts provide room for discharge pipes, HVAC ductwork, and electrical conduits.

Duct Fabricators was up to the challenge of installing ventilation 27 stories below ground.

“The project consisted of installing the ductwork through two 45-foot diameter shafts extending 250 feet deep below the ground,” said John Sickle Jr., president of Duct Fabricators and who is also on SMACNA’s Board of Directors.

Duct Fabricator’s part of the dewatering pump station is $4.35 million, supplying ventilation and air conditioning to seven dewatering pumps and two emergency pumps located at a cavern pump station 250 feet—or about 27 stories—beneath the ground. Six air conditioning units and two supply fans will keep the pumps from overheating during operation.

In addition, Duct Fabricators is fabricating and installing 38,000 pounds of Type 3003 aluminum ductwork, with thickness ranging from 0.040 up to 0.080 inches, using Pittsburgh lock seams and transverse duct connections, in accordance with SMACNA’s HVAC Duct Construction Standards.

All the ductwork was fabricated of single wall aluminum. The exterior surface of the ductwork was covered with a 2-inch thick insulation board, which then received a white Ventureclad covering.

The pump station is on track for completion in November 2016. The sewer district expects ETDPS to be activated about 80 times per year, completely filled about four times per year, and the pumps to operate about 340 hours per year.

Construction Global article on ETDPS: http://goo.gl/EiUuFi
Project Details: http://goo.gl/38Q70b

Case Study Date: MAR 11, 2016