Construction Update: May 2025 Recap

If this landscape looks lush and green, that’s because it seemed to rain constantly in May in Westfield. We’re working through it, pushing to complete tie-ins before the summer heat arrives.

May was a month of painstaking progress, focused on tie-ins. These critical connections are what will keep drinking water flowing during the next couple of years of construction. Once these lines are in service, we will be one step further towards demolishing the old slow sand filters and building the new treatment plant in their place.

Most of our work right now is concentrated on the north side of the old slow sand filters, which will be demolished. By rerouting these water mains, we are setting the stage for the new water treatment building.

Behold our giant new blue 36” water main (with a blue tent to match)! It will eventually connect to the plant’s existing 36-inch steel pipe. Once installed, we’ll hydrostatic pressure test it to check for any leaks, disinfect it, and then we can open the linestop and let the water flow. Pictured on the right: this busy area is the SOE (support of excavation) where Tie-in #3 is underway. The old pipe here was cut and removed at the beginning of May to make way for the new blue pipe.

This is the hydraulic control structure on the northwest side of the construction site. Workers are finishing the concrete slab for the base of the new chemical injection vault (CIV) that will house Tie-in #3. You can see a giant plug in the pipe that we're about to connect to the new blue steel pipe.

We’re using a crane to lift in sections of 36” HDPE pipe (high-density polyethylene, a super durable plastic) to form a temporary water main pipe that will run 1500 feet around the construction site. You can see the coupling where segments of HDPE have been fused.

Meanwhile, the search for buried utilities continues. This is a test pit to locate the existing 36-inch PRCP (precast reinforced concrete pipe) for Tie-in #4. As they pump out groundwater, workers are digging carefully to avoid hitting the live pipe.

Here’s progress on the linestop for Tie-in #3. On the left is the rebar for the concrete base and a red flange where the linestop will sit. On the right is the (nearly) completed linestop.

Finally, on the left is the pipe that will connect the chemical injection vault to the new steel blue pipe. On the right is a reducer for Tie-in #1 on the west side of the plant. It “reduces” the existing 42-inch steel pipe to meet the new 36-inch HDPE pipe. A new butterfly valve (in orange), controls flow through this temporary treatment main.

Now we look forward to summer sun as the work continues!