West Branch Reservoir

Connecticut

The aqueduct feeding this reservoir leaks thirty-five million gallons a day, and fixing it means a two billion dollar tunnel under the Hudson.

engineeringhistorical

The Delaware Aqueduct carries drinking water into this reservoir from the Catskills, and somewhere along the way a section of it has been losing thirty-five million gallons a day. The repair means shutting the inflow off entirely, from October through May, eight months without a drop coming through that pipe. That shutdown was scheduled for the fall of 2024. Then rainfall came in low, and the city postponed the whole thing until after 2027. Meanwhile crews are building the fix: a bypass two and a half miles long, running beneath the Hudson River, at a cost of about two billion dollars. During the shutdown the reservoir stays in service on its own natural water, the flow of the West Branch of the Croton River and the reservoir upstream at Boyds Corner. Two basins hold it all, split by State Route 301, with room for eight billion gallons at capacity.

This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
a section of the Aqueduct leaking 35 million gallons per day could be repaired

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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