8 MAY 2021 WorldWide Drilling Resource® MamaJo, Protector of Rivers Adapted from Information by the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Three Rivers Protection & Overflow Reduction Tunnel (3RPORT) and the Tunnel Works infrastructure project are designed to complete a large tunnel located in the bedrock below the city. An associated network of pipes nearer the surface will collect and transport sewage from locations where the combined sewer system might overflow during wet weather, thus reducing the amount of combined sewage discharged into Fort Wayne’s rivers by 90% in a typical year. The five-mile tunnel alone, a central feature of the project, is a massive undertaking; 3RPORT will run parallel to the St. Marys and Maumee Rivers and is being constructed in bedrock approximately 200-220 feet belowground using a tunnel boring machine (TBM). The tunnel, lined with concrete and 16 feet in diameter, will collect and transport combined sewage. Seven drop shafts, four to eight feet in diameter, will direct sewage and excess rainwater from near-surface sewer pipes into the tunnel, which will then transport the combined sewage to the treatment plant. The TBM was affectionately nicknamed MamaJo, by taking the first two letters from Fort Wayne’s three rivers, the Ma from Marys, Ma from Maumee, and Jo from Joseph. It has been a tradition to name the tunnel boring machine since mining lore as far back as the 1500s says workers prayed to St. Barbara for protection while working in the dark underground. MamaJo, standing at a diameter of more than 20 feet and stretching more than 400 feet in length, has been steadily boring 24 hours a day through the bedrock. As of December 5, 2020, MamaJo hit the three-mile mark. Tunnel completion is expected sometime this year. The intricate connection to neighborhood sewers is projected for completion in 2023, and the tunnel should be operational that same year. Construction of the entire system of drop shafts, consolidation sewers using the traditional method of open-cutting a trench and installing pipe, and the five-mile tunnel began in 2018. While the tunnel should be operational by 2023, all parts of the Tunnel Works system, including drop shafts and associated pipes, will be completed and operational by 2025, at an approximate cost of $188 million. When completed, this deep-rock tunnel will be a significant part of the effort to clean up Fort Wayne’s rivers and protect neighborhoods from basement backups and street flooding. Tunnel boring machine “MamaJo”. C&G
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