May 29, 2026 — Lynchburg Water Resources
City of Lynchburg leaders, project partners, state officials take tour of excavated tunnel path
Lynchburg Water Resources (LWR) hosted tours of the underground Blackwater CSO Tunnel on Friday, May 29, providing local leaders, state officials, and project partners an opportunity to view the construction progress so far for the City of Lynchburg’s largest-ever capital improvement project and the most impactful project to date in protecting the Blackwater Creek and James River from combined sewer overflows.
LWR and project partners Stantec and Atkinson Construction hosted 54 guests at the project’s main construction site at the bottom of 7th Street in downtown Lynchburg for the tunnel tours. Groups of 10 were lowered with a crane-operated construction cage down a 38-foot diameter shaft to the base of the excavated tunnel, where they were provided a walking tour of the excavated portion of the tunnel.
“This was a great opportunity to show the work completed so far on this massive project that will have such an impact in protecting public health and Lynchburg’s environment for generations to come,” said LWR Director Tim Mitchell. “This project is largely hidden because it’s happening almost entirely underground, so having the opportunity to take those involved with this project down to the tunnel provided a better perspective of the scale and importance of this effort.”
When complete, the Blackwater CSO Tunnel will stretch 4,744 feet in length and between 70 and 120 feet underground along the path of the Blackwater Creek from downtown Lynchburg to a current overflow point along the Point of Honor Trail near Hollins Mill Road. At this point, more than 4,200 feet of the tunnel’s path has been excavated through drill and blast methods with tunnel excavation expected to be completed this summer.
The entire project is expected to be completed in fall of 2027 with the tunnel expected to go into operation shortly after. During major rainfalls, the system will divert up to 4.7 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater – that would typically overflow into the Blackwater Creek – into the underground tunnel where it will stay until it can be pumped back into the sewer system to be treated properly at the Water Resource Recovery Facility before being discharged into the James River.
The total project cost is $104 million with $75 million funded through grants. It is the last major project for the City’s 45-year CSO Program, that when complete will have reduced the combined sewage/stormwater volume overflowing into Lynchburg’s waterways by 98 percent.
