Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewerage System

CHALLENGE
 
The City of Waco recently annexed a large expanse of land in their Southeastern Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) in order to better manage the extraordinary growth that the City is experiencing. The area is characterized by beautiful oak-covered rolling hills in a suburban, rural setting, highly desirable to developers, home builders, and home buyers. The challenge Walker Partners faced was how to provide a cost-effective solution to serve this newly annexed area with wastewater service while not overloading the downstream sanitary sewer system.

SOLUTION

Walker Partners brainstormed multiple ideas and options, selecting three alternatives to evaluate. Based upon our unique knowledge and experience with the Waco Metropolitan Regional Sewer System, we were very familiar with high sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) several miles downstream resulting from “bottlenecks” in the South Flat Creek Sanitary Sewer coupled with severe inflow and infiltration (I-I). Therefore, Walker Partners created a plan to transfer wastewater flows away from the South Flat Creek Sanitary Sewer System by way of a new 400-GPM lift station and into a new interceptor in the Bull Hide Creek drainage basin, conveying flows to the newly constructed and under-utilized Bull Hide Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project consisted of 15,200 linear feet of 21-inch, 4,338 linear feet of 24-inch, and 850 linear feet of 27-inch large diameter wastewater interceptor pipeline. This innovative solution also allowed for the abandonment of one of Waco’s problematic lift stations.

VALUE

Walker Partners’ full-service engineering team provided all of the feasibility studies, economic analyses, route alignment selection, utility coordination, traffic control, easement acquisition, surveying services, and preparation of drawings and specifications to ensure our Client that they were getting the right project for the best value. By performing all of the surveying and easement acquisition services in-house, Walker Partners acquired 100% of the easements without having to go to condemnation and at a cost 24% below the appraised land values!



In addition to saving the City of Waco time and money from the easement acquisitions, the $3,900,000 project was delivered 2.5% below the City’s capital improvement budget. As further testimony to the quality and accuracy of Walker Partners’ drawings, specifications, and contract documents, the entire project was completed with only one change order at a value of approximately 0.5% of the contract amount! 

completion date: 2015

location: Waco, Tx