KEY POINTS:
- All 31 construction workers safely escaped after partial collapse of industrial tunnel in Wilmington neighborhood
- Workers were trapped 400 feet underground, up to 6 miles from the only exit
- Incident occurred during construction of $630-700 million wastewater management tunnel
- No injuries reported despite workers having to climb over 12-15 foot debris pile
- Project now on hold pending investigation into structural failure
Thirty-one construction workers successfully escaped from a partially collapsed industrial tunnel in Los Angeles Wednesday night, ending what officials initially feared could have been a catastrophic disaster, according to multiple news reports.
The collapse occurred around 8 p.m. in the Wilmington neighborhood at the 1700 block of South Figueroa Street, as reported by the Los Angeles Fire Department. According to NBC News, the workers were operating a tunnel boring machine when the incident happened approximately 5 to 6 miles from the tunnel’s sole entrance point.
“Tonight, we were lucky,” LAFD Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva told reporters, as quoted by NBC News and multiple outlets. According to CBS Los Angeles, Villanueva explained that “a structure failure of the tunnel lining failed approximately five to six miles in.”
The tunnel is part of the Los Angeles Effluent Outfall Tunnel project, a massive infrastructure undertaking designed to modernize the region’s aging wastewater management system. According to Newsweek and LAist, the $630.5 million project was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Sanitation District to replace tunnels built in 1937 and 1958.
Dramatic Escape Through Debris
The Associated Press reported that workers were forced to navigate treacherous conditions to reach safety. According to AP, Fire Department Chief Ronnie Villanueva said workers had to climb over more than 12 feet of loose dirt before rescuers could reach them. The Washington Post similarly reported that trapped workers scrambled over a roughly 12- to 15-foot pile of loose soil to reach co-workers on the other side of the collapse.
According to multiple sources including CBS Los Angeles, four additional workers voluntarily entered the tunnel after the collapse to help their trapped colleagues. The Washington Post and others reported that the total of 31 workers then took turns riding a tunnel vehicle to the entry point more than five miles away.
Michael Chee, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, told the Associated Press that the cave-in appeared to have occurred between the tunnel boring machine 5 miles in from the sole entrance and the construction workers who were working 6 miles in. According to AP and NPR, the workers were about 400 feet underground.
Massive Emergency Response
More than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel responded to the scene, including specialized Urban Search and Rescue teams, according to ABC7 Los Angeles and multiple other sources. Mayor Karen Bass rushed to the scene along with other city officials.
“I know when we raced down here I was so concerned that we were going to find tragedy. Instead, what we found was victory,” Bass said at a news conference, as reported by NPR, NBC News, and the Washington Post.
According to ABC7 Los Angeles, workers were brought up from the tunnel in groups of eight using a crane, with all 31 workers safely extricated by 9:20 p.m. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported that 27 of the workers were medically evaluated by paramedics at the scene, though no injuries were reported by any source.
Critical Infrastructure Project
The tunnel being constructed is 18 feet in diameter and will stretch 7 miles when completed, according to multiple sources including NPR and the Associated Press. As reported by ABC7 Los Angeles and LAist, the tunnel is designed to carry treated wastewater from the A.K. Warren Water Resource Facility to the Pacific Ocean.
According to project contractor Flatiron Dragados, as cited by CBS Los Angeles, the tunnel will be 450 feet below ground level and will “safely transport treated water from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant to the Pacific Ocean.” LAist reported that the Hyperion plant is the city’s oldest and largest wastewater treatment facility, having operated since 1894.
Representative Nanette Barragán told reporters at the scene that the tunnel was being built as part of a broader project to modernize wastewater infrastructure and protect the environment, according to the Washington Post. Barragán emphasized the risks faced by infrastructure workers, stating, “We must never forget that these large infrastructure projects require workers that take great risk.”
Project Timeline in Question
The incident has raised serious questions about the future of the massive infrastructure project. According to ABC7 Los Angeles, Michel Chee with the L.A. County Sanitation District stated, “This accident will set the project back. There are several things that have to happen. Not until we have answers, not until we have engineering understanding, not until we have construction understanding of what happened will any work proceed.”
According to Newsweek, citing July 2024 documents from the L.A. County Sanitation Department, the tunneling aspect was expected to be completed by April 2025, with the overall project intended for completion in 2027 and the new tunnel set to be activated in January 2028.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Wilmington, posted on social media that she rushed to the scene “fearing the worst,” as reported by Newsweek. According to CBS Los Angeles, Hahn represents the area where the collapse occurred.
Worker and Family Relief
The Associated Press provided a poignant human element to the story, reporting on Maria Orozco, who hugged her son Oraldo Orozco – one of three sons she had trapped in the tunnel. Chelsea Fernandez, the wife of one of the rescued workers, told CBS Los Angeles, “Every day that he goes in there, we don’t know if he’s going to come out. It’s a dangerous job for anyone who goes down there.”
The investigation into what caused the structural failure is ongoing, with authorities stating that work will not resume until the site is deemed safe, according to multiple sources including the Associated Press and NBC News.
