Progress on Chicago’s Deep Tunnel

Progress on Chicago’s Deep Tunnel

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.
Chicago-area governments are hailing the completion of a major portion of the Deep Tunnel. The construction project is meant to protect local waterways.

Deep Tunnel workers have burrowed under the Chicago region for nearly 30 years. They’ve dug 100 miles worth of tunnels to contain storm water. Treatment centers can then clean sewage out of it.

Terry O’Brien heads the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. He says the Deep Tunnel’s already prevented a lot of basement flooding, but it’s also cleaned water for wildlife.

“One of the outstanding features is that now there are 68 species of fish in our inland waterway system, where before this tunnel was implemented, you probably only had a couple species of fish,” he says.

O’Brien says contractors must still complete reservoirs to hold even more water. That project will take almost 20 years.