Barton Creek Lift Station Relief Tunnel – Section 2

Project Description

Section 2 of the Barton Creek Lift Station Relief Tunnel (BCLSRT), begins at the end of a shallow tunnel in Zilker Park and extends approximately 1700 linear feet at approximately 70 feet in depth. The tunnel crosses under Barton Creek, and ends at a new temporary lift station near the softball fields at Toomey Road. The tunnel diameter is 96 inches with a finished pipe diameter of 33-inches. The pipe material is centrifugally cast fiberglass reinforced polymer mortar (FRPM) pipe. The lift station proposed at Toomey has an inside finished diameter of 25 feet to accommodate future tunnel connection and a capacity of 5,200 gallons per minute (GPM).

In order to expedite the effort to relieve and eliminate the failing ‘temporary’ Barton Creek Lift Station (located in Zilker Park near the Barton Springs Pool), the project is managed by the Austin Clean Water Program (ACWP). The project site is located in the environmentally and publicly sensitive Barton Springs area. The design will be integrated into the future Downtown Tunnel, a proposed project for relieving the Shoal Creek Lift Station and providing additional capacity for the downtown area. The Downtown Tunnel will extend to the upstream end of the Govalle Tunnel near Holly Street.

Services Provided

Espey Consultants, Inc. (EC) was awarded the BCLSRT – Section 2 project by the City of Austin’s ACWP in May of 2004. The project was fast-tracked to allow public bidding with Section 1, which was already well into the design phase. The preliminary and design stages were parallel and required obtaining permits in less than 8 months. The project required a permit by the City of Austin, including variances from the Environmental Board and easement agreements from the General Land Office (GLO), Missouri Railroad, and the City’s Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). EC successfully acquired all permits and construction is scheduled to begin in spring of 2005 with a completion date of summer 2006.