Delaware Aqueduct

Delaware Aqueduct, circular tunnel, part of the system that supplies water to New York City from the Delaware River near its source and from other streams in the Catskill Mountains. The Delaware Aqueduct is the longest tunnel in the world and carries about half of New York City’s drinking water each day.

Running deep in bedrock for its original length of 137 km (85 miles) from Rondout Reservoir in the Catskills to the Hill View Reservoir in southern Westchester county, the aqueduct has been extended to a total distance of 170 km (105 miles). The aqueduct was built between 1937 and 1953, with extensions continuing until 1965. It runs in some places to a depth of about 750 metres (2,500 feet) below the surface and reaches a maximum diameter of 6 metres (19.5 feet) in its last 21 km (13 miles).

In 2013 construction began on the Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel, the largest repair project in the history of New York City’s water supply system, expected to cost $1 billion. Two significant leaks in the aging aqueduct lose an estimated 76 million litres (20 million gallons) per day, most of it escaping a section of the tunnel near the Hudson River. The repair project, featuring a 4-km- (2.5-mile-) long bypass tunnel some 183 metres (600 feet) under the river from Newburgh to Wappinger, was expected to be finished in 2023, with the bypass tunnel connected to structurally sound portions of the existing Delaware Aqueduct on either side of the Hudson River and the second leak repaired.