Groundbreaking Delayed On Extended North Tunnel Project In Howard County

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Groundbreaking has been delayed on the 5,000-foot-long tunnel planned for Ellicott City, designed to carry water away from Main Street and into the Patapsco River. The tunnel will be about 18 feet in diameter and run up to 100-feet underground, just north of Main Street.

WTOP has learned the design for the project, known as the Extended North Tunnel, should be completed within the next month. The tunnel is part of the Ellicott City Safe and Sound plan, Patch reported previously. The county closed on a $75 million low interest federal loan through the Environmental Protection Agency’s competitive Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act to pay for the project, which provides water project construction funding under favorable terms.

The EPA funding brings the total investment of county, state and federal dollars in Ellicott City to $167 million in the past four years, which is $138 million higher than during the previous four year period.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball has described the tunnel as a "game-changing project," Patch reported, that will carry 26,000 gallons of storm water per second away from streets and foundations in Old Ellicott City and the West End and directly into the Patapsco River – about the amount of water in an in-ground pool every second.

Read more at WTOP and Patch