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Western Summit Constructors is finishing up work on roughly $200 million worth of construction, including an $85.3 million contract of its own and another $113.5 million joint-venture effort. It's all part of the overall $403 million second phase to expand the Gwinnett County, Ga., facility.
Gwinnett County, Ga., one of America's fastest-growing counties, has doubled in population since 1990. Its governmental leaders have tried to stay ahead of its infrastructure needs, launching an expansion of the F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center during the mid-1990s. Western Summit Constructors of Norcross, Ga., is one of the contractors nearing completion on one of the nation's largest water resources projects.
"With a growing population and declining capacity, we needed to expand our wastewater reclamation capacity," said Adam Minchey, Gwinnett County director of engineering and construction.
"We've been ahead of the growth curve. And it's been hard because we are growing so fast here. If you get behind, you don't get caught up."
The $403 million phase two job will allow the plant to process 40 mgd of additional waste, for a 60 mgd total, or triple the current 20 mgd capacity.
The plant sits on a 700-acre site and operates on a sequenced, multiple-barrier concept. A portion of the new facilities will come online this year, with the whole project expected to wrap up late in 2006.
Gwinnett County selected a design team of Jordan Jones & Goulding of Norcross, Ga.; CH2M Hill of Atlanta; and Precision Planning of Lawrenceville, Ga., in 2000 and hired the same team as construction managers in 2001. The county divided the project into four contracts.
Contract Four Contract four was the last contract awarded. Western Summit was the low bidder for the $85.3 million contract that included construction of new membrane process and chemical clarification facilities, an east chemical building and an emergency power-generation facility. The company self-performed 70 percent of the work, including earthwork, construction of the concrete structures, buried and exposed piping, and the process-equipment installation.
"It's a challenging structure," said Mike Powers, Southeast division manager for Western Summit. "From the below-grade pump room to the ceiling is 50 ft. It's a large building with a lot of open space filled with equipment and piping."
Construction began on contract four in June 2003. Powers expects to be offsite by March.
"It's been a tight schedule," he added. "It was lot of work crammed into a short time frame. Also the team has done a great job of adhering to our safety program."
The company emphasized safety and experienced only one lost-time incident as of August. In addition to weekly safety meetings, every superintendent meets with work crews for that day to discuss task changes, a job-safety analysis and production issues. At peak, 118 people were working on contract four.
Western Summit built five reinforced concrete structures to house the clarifiers, membrane equipment, chemicals, an electrical substation and an energy generation station with five new generators and two reconditioned units.
Crews poured 35,000 cu. yds. of concrete in about 10 months on this portion of the job. All of the buildings were complete in August, with membrane testing under way.
"There are a total of 16 membrane bays," Powers said. "To test in their range of flow, all the way to 100 percent of what they can handle, we can only get enough flow to test in groups of four membrane bays."
Minchey said he expects Wayne Hill may be one of the only entities using the membranes in a wastewater plant. Traditionally, drinking-water plants employ this type of technology.
Gwinnett County preselected and prenegotiated a $20 million package with ZENON of Oakville, Ont., to provide the membrane equipment, as well as blowers, pumps and pipes to support the system. It also contracted with Yancey Power Systems of Austell, Ga., to provide Caterpillar emergency generators.
Installation of the membrane filters required special planning, said Steve Sisneros, project manager for contract four and a Western Summit employee. The fragile membranes must be protected from exposure to foreign particles.
"Once installed, the membranes are susceptible to any kind of piercing debris, so we had to maintain a cleanliness quality," Sisneros said. "That's hard to do on a jobsite. We have barricaded half of the structure off, and we taped and sealed access hatches."
Western Summit has limited the number of people granted entry to the building. Personnel must sign into the area and wear cloth booties over their shoes to avoid tracking in dirt.
Other Projects> Western Summit is also working in a joint venture with Pizzagalli Construction Co. of New Burlington, Vt., on the $113.5 million contract two. The contract includes expansion of the preliminary treatment building; demolishing the existing north chemical building and constructing a new one; and installing primary and secondary clarifiers, biological reactors and two sludge pump stations. The team also is building odor-control facilities and secondary effluent collection boxes.
Work began on contract two in July 2002. At peak, about 140 employees and subcontractors were working on that portion of the project. Crews poured 80,000 cu. yds. of concrete.
Contract two was 96 percent complete at the end of August, said Dave Hall, contract two project manager with Western Summit. Minchey estimated that the job will finish ahead of schedule.
There's plenty of other work going on besides Western Summit's work. Beers Construction Co. of Atlanta received the $11.8 million site-preparation contract one, and Atlantic Skanska of Atlanta the $138.7 million solid storage contract three, which included expanding the pre- and post-ozone disinfecting facilities and modifying the granular activates carbon absorbers.
Minchey said Atlantic Skanska will finish contract three one year ahead of schedule by the end of 2005. Contractually, it has until 2007.
Crews from contracts two, three and four are working simultaneously on different aspects of the job. The three teams and Wayne Hill operations staff meet weekly to coordinate activities within the plant and limit shutdowns.
"Considering the size of this project, three contractors onsite and it being an existing plant that has to maintain operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it has gone extremely well," Sisneros said. "The membrane, the electrical and coordination of it all is something to be thrilled with."
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