Concrete is being poured to build the sides of a $19.7million underground tunnel designed to carry utilities through CFB Esquimalt.
The first stages in building the 0.7-kilometre-long concrete tunnel though the base are underway and on schedule, said Eivin Hoy, assistant manager of operations at Fleet Maintenance for Defence Construction Canada.
"We are building this massive underground utilities chamber going directly down the main road in the Esquimalt Naval Base.
It's the only main road we have through here, so to do this we had to mitigate all the issues we had with traffic flow, congestion, getting concrete on site," Hoy said Wednesday.
Construction is going on in the midst of regular operations at the base.
This is a complex project because also underground on the main road are services including steam, water, sanitary sewer and electrical "that we have to temporarily interrupt and sometimes even lift out of the way."
After a section of the chamber goes in, utilities go back in place or are moved into the chamber, he said.
As new utilities are installed or repaired, they will go into the corridor, Hoy said. One of its main objectives was to provide infrastructure for utilities required for new jetties.
Rick Lee, contract coordinator for the corridor, said that initially water lines will go into the tunnel, plus some of the storm and sanitary sewers, and one or two electrical circuits.
On average, excavation is about five metres deep, Lee said.
Victoria's Scansa Construction won the corridor job in May. About 40 workers were on site this week. The chamber is scheduled to be finished in October 2013.
The crescent-shaped corridor will use 3,000 cubic metres of concrete, Hoy said.
The interior of the tunnel will be three metres by three metres, with six small access chambers designed to look like sheds.
This project will result in the removal of about 17,500 cubic metres of soil and 32,500 cubic metres of blasted rock.
