September 6, 2018 - Residents are invited to a free tour of MamaJo, the tunnel boring machine that will soon begin digging a five-mile sewer tunnel under the City of Fort Wayne.
“I’m anxious to have you come out and see me, and even give me a pat on the back, but please, please, leave the flip-flops and sandals at home – this is a construction site,” said MamaJo.
Standing nearly 20-feet in diameter and more than 400-feet in length, MamaJo is preparing to dig a five-mile-long sewer tunnel that will protect our rivers and neighborhoods and serve the community for generations to come.
City Utilities invites residents to the free tour of MamaJo and the tunnel work site on Sunday, September 9, 2018, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Tour details:
- Visitors are asked to park in the lot at 2601 Dwenger Avenue to board a trolley for their tour
- Knowledgeable guides will be on each trolley to relay information to visitors
- Free photos will be taken by professional photographers for residents to download
- Tours take about 35 minutes and begin every 15 minutes from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Visitors should wear good walking shoes and no sandals, flip flops or open toed shoes
- A parent must accompany visitors under the age of 16
- Accommodations are available for those with disabilities
No doubt, the hardest worker on Fort Wayne’s Deep Rock Tunnel project, at 24-hours a day, is the Tunnel Boring Machine named MamaJo.
Derived from taking the first two letters from Fort Wayne’s three rivers, the Ma from Marys, Ma from Maumee and Jo from Joseph, MamaJo seems only fitting for a project that’s had an engineer's working title of the Three Rivers Protection and Overflow Reduction Tunnel (3RPORT). And so MamaJo becomes the protector of our rivers.
MamaJo is expected to start her journey and begin digging the tunnel later this fall. Completion of the tunnel boring is expected by 2021, and the intricate connection to the many neighborhood sewers by in 2023. The tunnel will be operational in 2023.
Once operational, the sewer tunnel in conjunction with other sewer projects completed in the past 10+ years will reduce the amount of combined sewage that currently overflows to our rivers by more than 90 percent. It will also reduce neighborhood street flooding and basement back-ups.
The deep-rock tunnel is a significant portion of the effort to clean-up Fort Wayne’s rivers and protects neighborhoods from basement back-ups and street flooding.
Residents can learn more and get tunnel updates at fortwaynetunnel.org.