Minneapolis celebrates completion of a $60 million tunnel project

Minneapolis city leaders and state lawmakers are celebrating the completion of the $60 million Central City Tunnel project .

The tunnel system collects storm water runoff and as the aging system was starting to crumble, the new tunnel was built reinforce it and reduce the flood risk to downtown Minneapolis.

Mayor Jacob Frey says as climate change progresses, cities like Minneapolis need to adapt to more water.

"We're seeing huge changes in how the thaw at the end of our winters take place," says Frey. "Just think about the last couple of months. We've had tons of rain. But for this Central City storm tunnel here, people's homes would have been getting flooded. The streets would have tons of water on them."

The new expansion will carry storm water from downtown Minneapolis all the way to the Mississippi River and is large enough to handle a 100-year storm.

For the last two year crews have been underground building a brand new tunnel to make up for an aging system build out of soft sandstone.

Frey says updating the city's infrastructure is necessary to accommodate the growing population too.

"They were built really well, but even when they're built that well, even when our population is still growing and it wasn't necessarily what it was in the 1950s, we have so much more water to accommodate right now," Frey explained. "And that's what these things are built to do."

The new tunnel's location is under Washington Ave. S. between Nicollet Mall and Chicago Ave. It actually runs parallel to the old tunnel.