Wastewater
Basin 7 Lift Station Program
*Replacement of seven aging lift stations across a 14-square-mile basin under one CM/GC agreement, using standardized designs and repeatable crews to deliver a station roughly every four months.
- Client
- Three Rivers Sanitary District
- Engineer
- Willamette Basin Engineers
- Location
- Salem, OR
- Value
- $25M–$100M
- Delivery
- CM/GC
- Status
- In Progress
Spec sheet
By the numbers
- Stations
- 7 submersible lift stations
- Capacity range
- 1.5 to 9 MGD each
- Force mains
- 4.1 miles, 8 to 24 in. HDPE
- Wet well depth
- 22 to 41 ft
- Standby power
- Seven diesel generators, 125 to 500 kW
- Contract value
- $47 million (GMP)
Story
Challenge, solution and outcome
Challenge
The district's seven stations were 40 to 55 years old, with undersized wet wells, obsolete controls and a history of overflows during storm events. All seven sit in residential neighborhoods, and each has to stay in service until the replacement is operational.
Procuring seven stations individually would have meant seven design reviews, seven bid cycles and seven learning curves.
Solution
We worked with the engineer to develop a standard station design with site-specific adaptations, and procured pumps, panels and generators in bulk. A dedicated crew now moves from site to site on a repeatable 16-week sequence, with each station's HDPE force main fusion-welded and pre-tested before the cutover.
Neighbors receive door-hangers 14 days before work begins and a direct line to the project superintendent. Overflow risk is managed by pre-installed bypass pumps with auto-start controls.
Outcome
Three stations are in service as of this writing, each completed 10 to 18 days ahead of its baseline. Standardization has cut the cost per station by 19 percent compared with the district's initial estimate.
The program has logged 118,000 hours with 0 lost-time incidents and no sanitary sewer overflows.
Safety
Safety highlights
- 0 lost-time incidents over 118,000 work hours to date
- Residential work-zone plan with pedestrian and school-route protection
- Excavation and shoring plan for every wet well, reviewed by a PE
- Bypass pumping tested under load before any cutover
Gallery
Project gallery
