Construction Update – September

Now that tie-ins are complete, the excavation area that has been a muddy construction site for months has been neatly backfilled and reseeded with grass. The service road at Gate 3, a north-south road that’s important for operations, has been paved and reopened.

Meanwhile, excavation has begun for the permanent 60” pipe and 72” pipes that will carry raw water north from the new Energy Dissipation Valve (or EDV) chamber to the new treatment plant. Above, an excavator is stripping overburden south of the Administration building to make way for the pipe run.

Contractors also built new headwalls for outfalls into the upper lagoon. One outfall conveys overflows from the new plant to protect the facility in an emergency. The second outfall is for site drainage. Above is the formwork installation and foundation steel reinforcement for one of the headwalls.

Meanwhile in the Backwash Facility, crews installed over 1,000 feet of conduit to support improvements of the existing infrastructure to optimize performance at the new plant.

Finally, crews were careful to salvage some of the mechanical components and decorative elements from the old 1925 building above the slow sand filters, including these vintage green valves, copper shutters, and ornamental tile. These beautiful old pieces of West Parish history will be featured in a future exhibit celebrating the evolution of water treatment at the site.