LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — You may not have seen much progress on a big project starting in Downtown Lynchburg, but the city’s largest-ever capital improvement project has been steadily moving under your feet.
Back in January, we reported on the drill and blast stage, marking one of the first visible steps of the project, when crews started construction on what will be a nearly mile-long tunnel along Blackwater Creek, starting in Downtown Lynchburg.
The goal of the tunnel project is to provide a tunnel that can store sewage or stormwater to prevent it from spilling into Blackwater Creek. The 4,715 feet of the completed 12-foot-diameter tunnel will be able to store 4.7 million gallons of water to make that goal happen.
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Set to be completed by 2027, the ambitious project has already made significant progress. On July 15, the City of Lynchburg took to Facebook to share an update on where the project stands. Newly-released photos show the inside of the tunnel, where workers are burrowing into the rock between 70 and 120 feet below the creek.
You can track the progress of the tunnel with the “Tunnel Tracker” website for the project. As of July 9, crews had carved out 895 linear feet out of the 4,744 feet of the tunnel.
For more information, check out the LYHBeyond website HERE.