Improving storage under Erie Boulevard
Onondaga County residents now benefit from the fact that
renovated facilities under Erie Boulevard prevent millions
of gallons of sewage from reaching Onondaga Creek—leading to
a cleaner Onondaga Lake.
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Excavation, corner of Erie Boulevard and State Street
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In the 1970s, the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection (WEP)
installed a box culvert more than 1½ miles long
beneath Erie Boulevard in downtown Syracuse. The culvert
can store 5 million gallons of wastewater from its
catchment area of over 1500 acres.
In addition to this storage, the culvert's purpose is
to carry stormwater runoff and CSO discharges from
nearby trunk sewers, and transport that flow to Onondaga County's main
interceptor sewer (MIS). When the flows of wastewater are
too great for the storage capacity of the culvert or
for the interceptor sewer, the excess wastewater goes
to Onondaga Creek. The objective, of course, is to keep as
much wastewater from the Creek as possible.
Over time, with the effects of road salt and moisture,
the hydraulic equipment of the Erie Boulevard system
had deteriorated, allowing CSOs discharges to reach Onondaga
Creek without restriction.
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Erie Boulevard tunnel
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In 2002, Onondaga County completed a full rehabilitation of
the facilities to make them an integral component of
its comprehensive efforts to abate water pollution to
Onondaga Creek.
The effort included re-examining the entire system and
renovating the control gate structures and
appurtenances in the sewer. It also included replacing
and upgrading the electrical service, automated
instrumentation, hydraulic operators, and telemetry.
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Façade on structure near West Street matches nearby National Grid building
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The sluice gates of the culvert are critical
components. They are located in four gate chambers
along the length of the culvert under Erie Boulevard.
The new controls for the gates and the new telemetry
equipment are located in small above-ground structures
near the control vaults.
WEP has been especially conscious of the fact that
these new structures are visible to thousands of
people in downtown Syracuse every day. Architectural
details have carefully been selected so that they
blend with their surroundings.
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Susan Miller, Project Deputy Director
Onondaga County Dept of Water Environment Protection