Keys to the Successful Construction of a Fast-Tracked Nutrient Removal Upgrade
Authors:
- Dwayne Amos - Hazen and Sawyer
- William Balzer - Hampton Roads Sanitation District
As permitting requirements for wastewater treatment plants continue to become ever stricter, facilities across Virginia will continue to require upgrades. This paper will share some of the challenges encountered and keys to successfully completing construction of a forty million dollar nutrient removal upgrade.
During construction of the plant upgrade, the treatment process was modified from a 3-stage to a 5-stage BNR process. The upgrade included construction of new basins, chemical facilities, and extensive modifications to existing infrastructure. State-of-the-art instrumentation was provided to monitor and control the new BNR process.
The many challenges encountered during construction and modifications to existing plant facilities required close coordination to maintain plant operations. The extensive additional instrumentation required seamless integration of the new and existing process control programming. The owner added several capital improvement projects over the course of the upgrade, which were required to be completed without impacting the overall project schedule.
The key factors to success included: 1) extensive partnering by the owner, engineer, and contractor leading to a personal commitment to project success, 2) the continuity of staff by all parties throughout the project, 3) twenty years of familiarity with the plant by the engineer dating back to its initial design, 4) technological tools including the on-line availability of all construction documents and plant process instrumentation data, and 5) the use of the innovative online OTIS (Operations Treatment Information System) operation and maintenance manual as a structure for training the plant staff.
Completion of the project was achieved eighteen weeks ahead of schedule allowing the owner to meet all regulatory obligations. Throughout the upgrade process sound design, communication, and creativity resulted not only in early completion, but in the plant maintaining its NACWA Platinum award status for perfect permit compliance.
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