The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) broke ground on the Kensico to Eastview tunneling and facilities upgrade project in Mount Pleasant on July 23. Per the DEP, the tunnel will “improve flexibility between vital water-supply facilities that serve more than nine million people in New York City and Westchester County.”
About the project
This project will be New York City’s largest water-supply tunneling effort in Westchester since the 1940s, and its construction is slated to create hundreds of construction jobs for local workers. The Kensico-Eastview Connection will be a two-mile-long tunnel that runs between the Kensico Reservoir, just north of White Plains, and the Catskill-Delaware Ultraviolet Light Disinfection Facility in Eastview. The finished tunnel will be 27 feet in diameter, run approximately 500 feet below ground, and have a capacity to carry as much as 2.6 billion gallons of water each day.
The Kensico Reservoir is a vital component of New York City’s water supply system, as the reservoir stores approximately 30 billion gallons of water at full capacity. The DEP draws about one billion gallons of drinking water from Kensico Reservoir daily to “meet the demand of 8.6 million residents in the five boroughs of New York City and approximately 500,000 residents of Westchester County whose communities are connected to the City’s system.”
The first phase of construction includes site preparation, the digging of two large shafts approximately 400-500 feet deep, the tunneling between the shafts, and the addition of several new facilities and upgrades at the Kensico Reservoir campus. According to the DEP, all phases of the project are expected to encompass a 10-year span, with the new tunnel being operable by 2035.
“This project will help us fulfill our commitment to providing consistent and reliable delivery of the highest-quality water to New York City and the growing population centers in Westchester County,” said Rohit Aggarwala, the DEP commissioner, in a press release about the project.
Abundant employment opportunities
According to John Cooney Jr., the executive director for the Construction Industry Council (CIC) of Westchester & Hudson Valley, a Tarrytown-based trade organization, this project is expected to supply jobs in major trades for five years and beyond.
“Many of the trade unions have increased their recruitment in anticipation of this project. They’re training additional employees to meet the demand for workers, and they’ve even doubled-up on some apprenticeship programs,” Cooney explains.
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In addition to the Kensico-Eastview project, this year the DEP is also planning to break ground on facility and infrastructure improvements at Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers, which is the last stop for water from the Catskill reservoirs before it enters the water tunnels that supply the five boroughs.
The Kensico-Eastview and the Hillview Reservoir project will employ workers from major trades including carpenters, laborers, operating engineers, teamsters, masons, electricians, roofers, and many more. Naturally, prior to a big project like this one, one of the most vital parts is preparing workers with the necessary training.
“All of the building trades unions have apprenticeship programs and training programs, which allow existing union members and new recruits to gain additional skills and certifications. The additional skills gained through these programs allow union members access to additional work opportunities in the future,” Cooney shares.
Current status of the project
Currently, the Kensico-Eastview project is in phase one, which consists of preparing for the tunnel work by cutting and filling the area and building platforms, among other tasks.
PJS Montesano JV LLC, the joint venture between Paul. J Scariano, Inc. and Montesano Bros. Inc., will be the organization working on this project. The two companies powering it have their offices in New Rochelle within walking distance from one another and, in the previous 12 months, have met on a weekly basis.
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Dominick Montesano, president of Montesano Bros., shares that there are approximately eight stages within phase one. Currently, Montesano is on stage two, which is mostly preparation, and plans to be in stage five (which consists of constructing the electrical building) around November.
Montesano Bros. primarily works with local laborers in the Westchester/New York City area and, for this project, there is a project labor agreement that requires all tradespeople working on the project to come from a union. The project labor agreement also outlines a 50-mile radius from the project in which unions need to find construction workers.
“I want to give credit where credit is due. The unions that we work with on an everyday basis have really ramped up their safety training,” Montesano says. “They promote the trades of the future and work to prepare, plan, and ensure that everyone is properly trained in a variety of skills.”
Job Potential
Interested in job opportunities related to the new tunnel? Contact Montesano Brothers, Halmar International, or any of the following union locals:
Operating Engineers Local 825
Laborers Local 60
Teamsters 456
Carpenters 279
Electricians Local 3
Bricklayers Local 1
