Keeping up the pace

Municipalities fund infrastructure work to meet demand

By Candy McCampbell

Gary Cinder, director of public works in Oak Ridge, Tenn., faces a pair of special challenges.

One is aging infrastructure - 70% of the city was built by 1943. The other is growth and infrastructure needed to support it.

A few years ago, with the state demanding action, city officials imposed a 5% rate increase in sewer rates for five years to fund sewer improvements.

“We wanted to keep it low enough that customers wouldn’t be dropping their jaws” when bills arrived, Cinder says.

Oak Ridge secured a low-interest loan from the state and now is seeking a federal grant for infrastructure improvement.

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“There’s little to no free money any more,” Cinder says. That means costs will come from higher taxes or higher utility rates, he adds.

Oak Ridge is like other cities and towns in the South Central region, struggling with growth and challenged by funding, delayed maintenance and state and federal mandates.

The tab nationally runs into the trillions.

Public works spending is up this year by 3%, to almost $121 billion, says Robert H. Murray, McGraw-Hill vice president of economic affairs.

“America faces a shortfall of $11 billion annually to replace aging facilities and comply with safe drinking water regulations,” but there has been no increase in federal funding, the American Society for Civil Engineers says in its 2007 “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.”

It gave drinking water and wastewater systems a “D”.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates $390 billion is needed over the next 20 years for new and replacement wastewater treatment systems, the report says. But federal funds were cut two years running.

States like Mississippi have double pressure from manufacturing growth and Hurricane Katrina damages.

Bobby Redding, senior environmental engineer with Neel Schaffer Inc. in Jackson, says the Jackson and Tupelo areas were well supplied before the Nissan and Toyota plants arrived, but some coastal counties are still recovering with the help of federal grants.

“Grant money is one thing, but loan money and financing is another issue,” Redding says.

The EPA, while supporting sustainable infrastructure, also wants local systems to look closely at asset management, including cost of operations and maintenance over 20 years.

Cheryl Carsons, financial analyst with the EPA’s state revolving loan program, encourages states to meet with funding sources and see who can pay for what.

Public works projects now under way include:

Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Replacement, Main Trunk Line, Montgomery, Ala. S.J. Louis Construction of Mansfield, Texas, is handling this $44.7 million job that will collect wastewater from the main lines and funnel it to the treatment plant.

“We’re laying around 70,000 ft of pipe in both projects over 13 mi of pipe,” says David Dickerson, project manager.

The fiberglass pipe, which ranges from 30 to 78 in, is going in parallel to the existing interceptor, which will be abandoned.

The project also includes 8 micro tunnels dug under major highways where a large casing holds the sewer pipe.

Some of the pipe will lie 20 to 30 ft underground, so stackable trench boxes are set down to reinforce the work area.

This dual-phase job started in August 2006. The first part finished in mid-March. The second part started in December 2007 and will finish in July 2009.

Beaver Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility, Knoxville, Tenn. Hallsdale Powell Utility District will be running two plants in one when the three-year, $40.7 million expansion and upgrade project is completed in March 2010.

It will run a split-flow facility, with a conventional treatment plant operating alongside a membrane bioreactor plant, together processing abut 12 million gallons a day, says Darren Cardwell, vice president and chief operating officer.

The MBR is the first large-scale operation in the state. Huntsville, Tenn., has a smaller one.

Membranes are submerged in 20-by-20-ft tanks and trap solids from wastewater that flows through under pressure. Solids now go to a compost facility but that is likely to change in the next phase of the upgrades, Cardwell says.

One challenge is getting approval from environmental officials, especially for sediment and nutrient levels of flow into Beaver Creek while dealing with 25 stream mi above the plant.

3D Enterprises Contracting of Lexington, Ky., is the contractor.

Stones River Water Treatment Plant Expansion, Murfreesboro, Tenn. The city’s water treatment plant capacity will increase from 15.6 million gallons per day to 20.5 mgd in this $40.1 million expansion by Building Crafts Inc. of Highland Heights, Ky.

The project includes replacing gravity filters with granular-activated carbon filtration and adding a pressurized membrane filtration plant that will remove particles larger than 1 micron, says Alan Cranford, plant superintendent.

Another replacement: onsite electrolysis-produced hypochlorite post-treatment instead of gaseous chlorine.

It will be used in one of five new treatment-related buildings. The others are for high-service pumping, membrane filtration, pretreatment and fluoride post-treatment.

The project also includes construction of a 1-million-gallon, 15-ft clear well concrete reservoir for treated water.

Three new pumps are being added along with space for another.

The plant is the only one in Tennessee that uses lime softening in the treatment process. Work started in January 2007 and will finish in October 2009.

Johnson City Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion, Johnson City, Tenn. Things are booming at the Johnson City Wastewater Treatment Plant as W. Rogers Co. blasts a rocky hillside for an oxidation ditch, filter structure and clarifying structure.

There are plenty of blast monitors because the $23.5 million project is near an airport and a dam, says Don Campbell, project manager.

The oxidation ditch, about 250 by 155 by 26 ft is big enough that concrete trucks can drive in to pump out concrete for the 30-in walls. It will hold four Landox drum mixers used in the breakdown process.

The filter structure is 91 by 85 by 26 ft and the clarifier is 125 by 15 ft.

Lines inside the plant facility are mostly ductile iron, ranging from 48 to 4 in. in diameter, he says. Other lines outside, which run as deep as 26 ft, are concrete.

The three-year project has a February 2010 finish.

Peak Flow Attenuation Facility Contract II, Little Rock, Ark. This $27.2 million job includes a peak-flow pump station and force main conveyance and equalization facilities, says Danny Russell, project manager for Max Foote Construction of Mandeville, La.

The equalization facilities are concrete-lined basins - one 20 million gallons and one 10 million gallons - that will hold excess rainwater before releasing it to the treatment plant. They required removal of 300,000 cu yds of dirt.

The job includes construction of a 50- by 50-ft pump station building with three pumps and space for a fourth. Used only after heavy rains, the diesel-driven pumps are less costly than continuous electric service.

About 11,000 ft of 48-in ductile iron pipe, about 8 to 10 ft deep, is going in.

Gauges installed in manholes can signal diversion valves to open and send the water to the basins.

The project started in September and will complete in May 2009.

Joe M. Steele Water Treatment Plant Rehabilitation, Lowell, Ark.The plant, which serves cities in Arkansas’ growing northwest corner, is getting a 40% increase in capacity with this $26.1 million job by Crossland Heavy Contractors of Columbus, Kan.

The biggest addition is the 145- by 426- by 20-ft flocculation and sedimentation basin, an open in-ground concrete pit with 20-in-thick walls, says Charlie Rarick, project sponsor. It also has an enclosed electrical room.

The job includes several structures, including a 6,000-sq-ft chemical building that houses the tanks of liquid that feed the plant, a 12-ft diameter, 20-ft-tall steel silo for lime and a 50- by 38-ft washwater basin with a 40-ft depth that necessitates 4-ft walls. Existing system hydraulics dictated that depth, Rarick says.

Workers also reached rock, so they used jackhammers that fit on the end of trackhoes instead of blasting.

The existing 3-story, 7,000-sq-ft operations is being rebuilt.

The job started in April 2007; completion is April 2009.

Bay St. Louis Hurricane Katrina Utility Replacement Project, Bay St. Louis, Miss.It’s all sevens for Eutaw Construction Co. of Petal, Miss., as it replaces infrastructure in the Old Town area.

The $13.9 million job calls for 7 mi each of roads, gutters, sidewalks and sewer, water and gas lines, says Josh Layton, project manager.

The water, sewer and gas pipe are running parallel, though in different trenches, with the sewer lines 6 to 20 ft. deep, the water lines 4 ft deep and gas lines 3 ft deep.

“One crew does sewer, the water crew comes behind them and the gas crew behind them,” Layton says. They are removing old pipe as they go.

Water and sewer get PVC pipe and gas has HDP.

The challenge: Keeping customers up and running the whole time, Layton says. That occasionally means laying a temporary line on top of the ground for use while other lines are being tested.

Work started in July 2007; completion is July 2009.

Sewer and Water System, Waveland, Miss. Waveland, Miss., is one of the Gulf Coast towns whose infrastructure was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina hit, filling the water/sewer system with salt water, sand and other contaminants.

Hemphill Construction of Florence, Miss., is installing 23 mi of new water and sewer pipe and lift stations in this $48.9 million job.

It also will lay asphalt base asphalt for streets, says Ricky Eiland, project manager. (Road paving will be a separate contract.)

Water pipe will be 3 ft deep, and sewer pipe from 6 ft to 18 ft deep.