• TUNNEL: The world’s largest storm sewer tunnel began operations in Mexico City marking the end of an 11-year long construction process under extremely difficult terrain that pushed costs up to USD 1.7 billion. It promises to end the threat of catastrophic flooding.
• WATER: With a discharge capacity of 5,200 cubic feet per second, the 39 miles long Eastern Drainage Tunnel (TEO) is the latest solution to a problem that dates back to the 17th century when the Spanish conquerors began draining a lake system where the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán sit.
• YEARS: “This new tunnel is coated with its own appropriate technology to carry wastewater so that it can last not 10, not 20, not 100 but I hope more than 150 years”, said Blanca Jiménez Cisneros, the director of Mexico’s national water commission (CONAGUA), the agency in charge of the project.
• CHALLENGE: Using more than 142,000 tonnes of steel and a 4,000 crew working seven days a week, the TEO was Mexico’s largest infrastructure project and experts say its operation will put an end to the risk of Mexico City flooding during the summer rain season.
