(Above left) Liebherr HS 895 HD 220-ton duty cylce crane going back in the shaft to retrieve a 50-ton muck box from the tunnel. In the foreground precast concrete tunnel liner segments. (Above right) Unit 2 located at La Cienga and jefferson on this 11 Mile tunnel project being constructed for the City of Los Angeles by Kenny/Shea/Traylor/Brothers/Frontier-Kemper Joint Venture.

A $241-million contract issued to Kenny Construction Company is the largest public works contract ever performed by the City of Los Angeles and involves the construction of the East Central Interceptor Sewer (ECIS) system. Kenny Construction is acting as the on-site managing partner for the Kenny/Shea/Traylor Brothers/Frontier-Kemper Joint Venture constructing an interceptor system approximately 60,000 feet long with a primary support system of bolted, gasketed, precast concrete segments. The 11-mile project replaces a portion of existing 70-year-old Los Angeles north outfall sewer and the project runs directly through Central and South Central Los Angeles and on into Culver City. The project is designed to provide sufficient wastewater capacity up to at least 2050.

Kenny and the joint venture partners are using three main hoist cranes on the project. The first is a Liebherr HS-895-HD crane with a 220-ton capacity and two Liebherr LR-883 Litron crawler cranes with 150-ton capacity on the project. The LR-833 cranes were purchased from Coastline Equipment in Long Beach. "It took about two months to close the deal," according to Steve Whisenhunt, Coastline Equipment's Northern California Territory Sales Manager. "They were looking for high quality machines with high line pull and horsepower to do shaft service. Basically, the LR-833 is the only machine that could get the production speeds that they needed. We're also providing service and maintenance for the units out there."

(Above left) Full train of side dump boxes arriving from tunnel heading. (Above right) Liebherr 883 150-ton duty cycle crane purchased from Coastline Equipment shown here rigging tunnel lining ring to lower into shaft.

Kenny Vice President Ted Budd reports that the LR-833 cranes from Coastline Equipment are positioned on main work-sites at two mining operations and are basically stationary. "They are over a fixed position on the shaft and simply do hoisting at the mining operation sites including pulling 13-yard muck cars from the hoist shaft," he explained.

The HS-895-HD crawler crane assigned to the Jefferson Street and La Cienega Boulevard work-site has been handling all hoisting including assembly of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and trailing gear, mucking, and segment handling for the inlet tunnel. When excavation of the shaft reached the invert of the siphon tunnel a steel deck was erected the full length of the shaft, to serve as the erection and launch area for the inlet tunnel. This deck was utilized to hold the segment cradle for assembly and launching of the second TBM. All the trailing gear and segments are handled on this deck and muck cars hoisted. "The 895, incidentally is servicing a second shift and currently pulling 13-yard cars with the day shift pulling 26-yard cars," Budd added.

(Above) Mark Saylor, Equipment Manager, Kenny Construction Co. shown here at Unit 2 of the East Central Interceptor Sewer (ECIS) System.

Lovat Tunnel Equipment of Canada supplied four 15.5-foot diameter Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) to Kenny. The quadruplet Model RMP185SE units, estimated to cost $3.5 million apiece, were specifically designed to operate in EPB, open or closed modes to bore through the predominately soft ground and sandy soils in the Lakewood Formation and hard clay and soft rock in the San Pedro Formation. On August 6, 2002, Lovat's 200th TBM, "Lucille" broke through and has now been joined by her sisters "Diane," "Sonia" and "Angie" in the City of Angels to work on the project. "With four mining machines running we're just approaching 50 percent completion with the mining phase and should have that completed well before the end of January," Budd noted."

Three major earthquake faults at Newport, Inglewood and Baldwin Hills are being crossed with special concerns for previous seismic disruption so watertight construction techniques are mandatory. The tunnel alignment is also within, or near, several oil fields. Other challenges for the project include construction through residential areas, limited areas for construction staging, and a 14-hour work window along specified sections of the alignment.

(Above left) CAT 966F wheel loader loading out a truck with muck from tunnel. (Above right) 20 yard muck box pulled from the hoist shafts being dumped.

The tunnel's primary lining is a reinforced, gasketed, bolted, six-piece precast concrete segment. Each segment is being manufactured by an intra-venture JV, Traylor/Shea. The precast plant produces 48 rings per day on the double carousel system. Projections are for all segments to be completed early in 2003. The final tunnel liner is a prestressed concrete cylinder pipe of 11-feet in diameter installed in the previously mined segment tunnels and finally grouted in place. Ameron of California is manufacturing the liner.

The City of Los Angeles mandated closely controlled grouting behind the segments immediately after installation to prevent any possible subsidence. The JV contracted with Advanced Concrete Technologies to purchase three Wiggert MobilMat 30 grout batching-mixing plants. Each plant is set on the surface directly adjacent to the three tunnel service shafts.

In 1998, several communities in South Los Angeles suffered severe sewage spills during unusually heavy rainstorms because of the failure of the main sewer, the North Outfall Sewer (NOS). The sewage overflows were caused by a combination of the age, size, and condition of NOS along with the heavy rains. The Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) issued a Cease & Desist order (CDO) on September 14, 1998 requiring the City of Los Angeles to complete construction of several new sewers in about seven years. The East Central Interceptor Sewer project began in April 2001 and is to be completed by the end of February 2004.

(Above) Loading supplies into the La Cienga shaft.

"The original contract completion was for 1,000 days from notice received which made it run through the end of November," Budd added. "But due to delays by the City for easements and archaeological encounters involving Native American artifacts it was necessary to add a 99-day time extension which puts us out to the end of February 2004."

Kenny Construction Company is a national contractor with extensive experience building subways, tunnels, airports, stadiums, hotels, power plants, mass transit, bridges, highways, and all manner of buildings and infrastructure projects. This past year, Kenny celebrated 75 years of landmark construction projects evolving from a family partnership of the early 1920's to its present corporate form in January 1927. Coastline Equipment was formed in 1984 in Long Beach and now has eight locations throughout California including the new Crane and Boom Truck facility in Sacramento.

Coastline Equipment is a full-service dealer offering sales, leasing, rentals, parts, repair, and undercarriage service. Coastline's rental fleet is made up of over 250 late model machines and their parts department carries an inventory of over $2 million to support the products sold by the company.