Sample Text. Portions of the Borough of Queens in New York City have historically been plagued with flooding during major storm events, since most of the Borough is relatively flat and at low elevations. The Borough borders the East River and Long Island Sound to the north and Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. For many years the Borough has experienced major storm water relief projects consisting of large reinforced concrete single and multiple barrel sewers.

On November 24, 1998 the City of New York Department of Design & Construction, (NYC DDC), received bids for project SE-552D, Storm Sewers Crossing the Belt Parkway. The low bid received was from Northeast Construction Inc., Lakewood, New Jersey for $2,689,000. The unusual project consisted of twin drives of 48" Ø RCP under the Belt Parkway, open cut 48" Ø RCP pipe and two major concrete chambers designed to interconnect with existing storm box sewers providing much needed additional storm water relief to an area of Queens adjacent to John F. Kennedy Airport.

The NYC DDC engineers had to provide a conduit under the Belt Parkway of sufficient capacity for storm relief while meeting existing storm chamber inverts on both sides. They determined that the required capacity could be met by installing two 48" Ø round pipes. The Belt Parkway is a heavily traveled, six lane highway traversing a southern corridor through the Borough of Brooklyn and Queens. Therefore, New York City traffic engineers would not permit closure or narrowing of the Belt Parkway traffic lanes. Further, physical constraints prohibited the construction of a temporary bypass or detour road, effectively eliminating the open cut construction method.