I'll be posting some more pictures here from the drains/sewers in my city. But for now, here are some photos of one CSO section (the segment between the diversions and the river) that we explored about a month ago:

The brick wye not far from the entry


Our entry point


Looking up a branch (note the nice brick floor)


Detail of where the stone invert meets brick side. Most of the sewer downstream of the diversions is like this.


Sewage flowing into a diversion pipe


Less sewage flowing into another diversion, from above


Me, standing in shit, pointing back the way we came


The huge weir in the diversion structure that diverts most flows into the new CSO tunnel


The super-scary ramp that leads down to a ~100ft vortex drop shaft, into the CSO tunnel


And finally, in the largest section of the sewer (9 ft diameter) -- a photo taken by a friend (but that's me doing the lighting and modeling)


Add to all this that we found by the entry what I believe is a tag by the old PVC group ... and you have a completely awesome sewer (for Portland, at least).

Ah holy crap that last one is awesome!

Posted by nonconmat The super-scary ramp that leads down to a ~100ft vortex drop shaft, into the CSO tunnel

So Portland has a modern deep CSO system a la Rochester and MSP? Winner! From http://www.portlan.../index.cfm?c=31727 it sounds huge!

Never seen a structure that narrows down to a slit like that before :-o That must be really intense when there's more flow. Would love to see the shaft on the other side.

Very nice, and excellent shots. I especially like your last one. I"m quite fond of blue lighting and that one looks awesome.

Yea that dropshaft is hella intense. Staring down it with the water rushing is pretty scary. We plan to rappel down it at some point, we'll see if we can work that out!

Posted by loops So Portland has a modern deep CSO system a la Rochester and MSP?

Yep. It is, perhaps, unique in the fact that the surrounding material is basically wet gravel/silt -- so the tunneling was quite an achievement, and the entire length of all 3 "Big Pipes" is lined with fancy interlocking concrete segments.

- The Columbia Slough Consolidation Conduit's 12-ft diameter section was completed around 2000. It has reduced CSOs by over 99%.
- The West Side CSO tunnel, 14-ft diameter, was completed in 2006.
- The East Side CSO tunnel, 22-ft diameter, was completed just last year. Together with the WSCSO, CSOs into the river have been reduced by about 94%.

AFAIK, these are all that are planned -- i.e., the system is now complete and fully operational.

Have yet to get into 2 of these, but they are connected; so hopefully once we get into one ...

I'd love to come check this out sometime soon.

This brick sewer or the CSO tunnels?

Posted by nonconmat This brick sewer or the CSO tunnels?

The CSO, but nice brickwork is always a good time.

The bigger tunnels are still an unknown. Steam and I have no idea how much water will be in them until we rappel down there, even if we do make sure to go after a long dry spell. We'll definitely update once we know, though, and subsequent trips *will* be had if it's accessible. Maybe we'll even find another way down that doesn't require sharing a rappel route with combined sewer water.

That said, I'd be happy to show you what I know how to get to. The 12-ft one is a short walk (~0.5 mile) from a secluded manhole through one of the poopier sewers I've seen. After that, the map says it's 2 miles long.

Going to be at SEAPEX? If so, let's make plans there.

Sweet, been a while since I've experienced some slippery sewerfresh adventures.

I will definitely be at Seapex.

Some better photos of the same brick CSO (finally).

That sexy wye


Looking up the manhole just visible on the right edge of the wye photo


The dirty side of a diversion


And now for something completely different -- sewer reconstruction, as viewed from inside the sewer. We're very sad to lose any part of our beautiful brick tunnel ... there's actually a chance the wye will be destroyed, and rebuilt with ugly, new concrete, too.


The only evidence that any other explorers have been there:

Man if they take our wye... Oh well.
On the bright side, those pics turned out fantastic!

Posted by nonconmat there's actually a chance the wye will be destroyed, and rebuilt with ugly, new concrete, too. http://farm9.stati...4_aeaab8aaf0_b.jpg

We've got a similar situation here, this gorgeous junction is at risk of being destroyed and replaced with concrete. Such a shame.

Posted by urbexkeith We've got a similar situation here, this gorgeous junction is at risk of being destroyed and replaced with concrete. Such a shame.

Damn, that sucks! I've seen that junction in some others' photos, too ... what city?

Posted by nonconmat Damn, that sucks! I've seen that junction in some others' photos, too ... what city?

It's in Denver, one of the oldest ones around here too, it was completed in 1901.


Here are some photos of it being completed that I dug up from the libraries photo archives.

Nice!

Messing around tonight with Steam and negascout, in yet another room built by the Big Pipe project


Sitting on top of that weir

Glad I got to see this before it gets shut off. It was my first brick system, along with having the biggest chambers I've ever been in. thanks to nonconmat for taking me here and acting as a subject for my pictures

main junction



area under construction



long section of brick tunnel, along with the 2-story tunnel intersection



the "big room"



slide to the "vortex"

Yet more from the big brick drain. Photo credit to Crypton: