Diver-Operated Vehicle Installs New Water Tunnel Liners Without Dewatering | Engineering News-Record

NewsProjectsTechMidwestMidwest Construction NewsWater & DamsConstruction technology Water Infrastructure Diver-Operated Vehicle Installs New Water Tunnel Liners Without Dewatering By Aileen Cho Photo courtesy Ballard Marine Construction After being lowered into a tunnel, BURT installs concrete liners underwater. January 29, 2026 A project nearing completion in the Detroit area used a custom-built, diver-operated vehicle that can operate underwater and that replaced concrete liners for two raw water tunnels, eliminating the need for dewatering and diversion or prolonged outages. The diver‑operated liner plate installation vehicle is a modular, 25‑ft‑long electric‑over‑hydraulic transporter dubbed BURT, for Ballard’s Underwater Ring Transporter. Ballard Marine Construction, part of the Traylor Construction Group, led a team that developed and tested BURT on land and at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University before deploying it in 2022 on a 12‑ft-dia unreinforced cast‑in‑place concrete tunnel built in the 1930s and one 10‑ft-dia tunnel from the 1950s. The tunnels both have precast primary segments and a secondary unreinforced lining, and are owned by the Great Lakes Water Authority.                                                                                                                Video courtesy Ballard Marine ConstructionBURT completed the liner installations last fall, after three years of October-to-April windows for construction. ...