The New York City Department of Environmental Protection says it has reached the halfway point of a 2.5-mile tunnel being drilled from Newburgh to Wappinger that will connect on both sides to the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct, which links four Catskill reservoirs with the city.

A view inside the tunnel

The project, projected to cost $1 billion and continue through 2023, will allow the DEP to bypass portions of the Delaware tunnel that are leaking beneath the Hudson River so they can be repaired.

A map of the bypass tunnel

The tunnel is being created by a boring machine that has been dubbed Nora, for Nora Barney, the first woman in the U.S. to earn an engineering degree. The bore is presently about a half mile west of the Hudson.

Photos courtesy NYC Water

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