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![McCormick Place West Stormwater Tunnel](/sites/default/files/styles/project_hero/public/2023-12/Photo%20for%20Website_%20McCormick%20Place%20West%20Stormwater%20Tunnel.jpg?h=dbfb23f9&itok=lWmilxfp)
McCormick Place Stormwater Tunnel project includes the construction of the stormwater outfall tunnel and three shafts to direct stormwater from the new 61.8-acre facility roof out under Lake Michigan to an outlet shaft on Northerly Island. This work accompanies a 2.2 million-square-foot expansion of the McCormick Place Convention Center.
The design-build team designed the tunnel and shafts to accommodate a 100-year storm event with a system flow capacity for stormwater run-off of 497 cubic feet per second. The team designed and built the outfall tunnel to reduce impacts on the century-old storm sewers and to create more water resources for Lake Michigan.
Atkinson constructed the 3,450-foot-long, 12.5-foot unlined inside diameter stormwater tunnel through limestone rock using a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). We also drilled and blasted the three shafts and TBM starter tunnel.
The shafts consisted of a 7-foot diameter, 200-foot-deep drop shaft on the convention center site, a 20-foot diameter, 235-foot-deep outlet shaft on Northerly Island, and a 155-foot-deep, 22-foot diameter shaft adjacent to Lake Michigan.
Atkinson also performed cutoff grouting in the shafts and tunnel and installed four tide flex valves.
![McCormick Place Stormwater Tunnel](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/McCormick%20Place%20West%20Hall%20Expansion%20Storm%20Water%20Tunnel_Carousel.jpg?h=418bbcf4&itok=UF-vZe8V)
![McCormick Place Stormwater Tunnel](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/McCormick%20Place%20West%20Hall%20Expansion%20Storm%20Water%20Tunnel_Carousel1.jpg?h=418bbcf4&itok=O-hZQSHR)
![McCormick Place Stormwater Tunnel](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/McCormick%20Place%20West%20Hall%20Expansion%20Storm%20Water%20Tunnel_Carousel3.jpg?h=418bbcf4&itok=lKTWxXgB)
![McCormick Place Stormwater Tunnel](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/McCormick%20Place%20West%20Hall%20Expansion%20Storm%20Water%20Tunnel_Carousel4.jpg?h=418bbcf4&itok=ey5lrLfw)