After a tunnel collapsed at a work site in Wilmington, 31 people were extricated uninjured, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
No workers remained unaccounted for in the collapse of an 18-foot-diameter tunnel.
“Preliminary reports are that the trapped workers were able to scramble with some effort over a 12-15’ tall (undetermined length) pile of loose soil, to meet several coworkers on the other side of the collapse, and be shuttled several at a time by tunnel vehicle to the entry/access point more than five miles distant,” the LAFD said in a statement.
Workers were removed from the tunnel shaft using an elevator system known as a bird cage, Michael Chee, spokesperson for the L.A. County Sanitation District, told The Times late Wednesday.
The bird cage can carry up to eight people at a time and is the only way in and out of the tunnel, he said.
The accident took place in a new tunnel construction project known as the Clearwater Project, which is designed to carry treated, clean wastewater from the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant to the ocean.
The tunnel boring machine is six miles south of the plant, where it is being used to create an 18-foot-diameter tunnel, he said. This tunnel will replace existing tunnels of smaller diameter that have been in service for many decades.
Around 10 p.m., 27 of the workers were being medically evaluated by LAFD paramedics at the scene for minor injuries.
Prior to the accident, the tunnel was expected to reach Royal Palms Beach by the end of the year, at which point it would be seven miles long. The plant is the largest wastewater treatment plant owned and operated by L.A. County Sanitation Districts and the districts’ only plant that discharges treated wastewater into the ocean. This is the first major incident that has taken place since construction on the project began in late 2019. Work on the tunnel itself started in 2021.
Wednesday’s incident, at 1701 N. Figueroa St. — the only entry point to the tunnel — was first reported around 8 p.m. More than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel were assigned, among them search and rescue teams specially trained and equipped to handle confined-space tunnel rescues.
It was feared the workers could have been trapped up to six miles south of the access point, according to the LAFD.
