Expansion won't interrupt county sewer-plant operations
The Delaware County Regional Sewer District's wastewater treatment plant at 10333 Olentangy River Road (state Route 315) is being renovated and expanded, and is to remain in operation until the project is completed in 2024.
Work began this fall at the facility, officially called the Olentangy Environmental Control Center (OECC).
Built in 1979 and last updated in 1994, the center is due for an overhaul, according to DCRSD director Tiffany Maag.
"This project is being undertaken for several reasons, one of which is that most of the plant-process equipment has met or exceeded its design life and needs to be replaced," she said.
"We are strategically choosing and sizing the new process equipment and structures to account for future permitted flow increases so that the next phase will be a more straightforward project of adding on infrastructure needed to handle the additional overall hydraulics."
The plant is to continue to operate at capacity, she said, thanks to careful planning and engineering.
"We spent countless hours and meetings with the engineer, contractor and county staff in the room laying out a plan to continue full operation at all stages of construction.
"Some of the construction efforts are coordinated seasonally so that we can work in specific tanks based on anticipated flows at that time of the year. … This is one of the most important coordination efforts in this project, to ensure that we can maintain full plant capacity and meet our Ohio Environmental Protection Agency permit limits throughout the duration of construction."
The project has made progress since work started, Maag said, including site clearing and preparation for a new building and other features.
In addition to engineering and scheduling, the county said the center is one of the first public-sector projects in the state to use an innovative design and construction process that saves money.
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The $40-million project utilizes what's called "progressive design build (PDB)," county director of communications Jane Hawes said in a press release.
She described it as an engineering, design and construction process, where instead of bidding out construction after design is completed, design is done in collaboration with engineering and construction firms, enabling better design decisions while lowering costs.
Because of the project’s significance, it also was awarded a $5 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development’s Ohio BUILDS water-infrastructure grant program, Hawes said.
DCRSD is working with the Columbus office of the design-engineering firm Arcadis, and Peterson Construction Co. of Wapakoneta, Ohio, Hawes said.
The planning process was extensive, Maag said.
“Planning work on this project started before the pandemic, but given the use of the PDB method, the project will be completed ahead of schedule for less cost than originally anticipated.”
Maag said that Peterson's involvement early in the design process helped address challenges with supply-chain delays, labor shortages and rising cost of materials.
“They also helped us identify modifications to an existing facility so that, in lieu of the original plan to mothball the facility and build a completely new one, we saved nearly $6 million, which, in turn, is allowing us to layer on additional improvements.”
Rob Knapke, vice president at Peterson Construction, said the progressive design-build approach helped pre-procure equipment during the design phase, preventing delays and avoiding future cost increases.
Arcadis project manager Chad Dunn said the collaboration between the designer, construction manager and county was instrumental in mitigating supply-chain issues.
The county commissioners lauded the process.
“(The project team) thought to look at renewing existing assets instead of building something new that would have cost us and the taxpayers more money,” commissioner Barb Lewis said.
“This is a great example of how smart planning contributes to smart growth here in Delaware County. The current economy has created serious challenges, but the PDB method has prompted us to come up with a great solution,” commissioner Jeff Benton said.
“We knew from the master plan put in place that we would have to build capacity in this area. I’m pleased we’ll be able to do so without wasting money or existing assets,” commissioner Gary Merrell said.
DCRSD serves more than 111,000 people with 531 miles of sewer lines.
For more about the DCRSD, visit regionalsewer.co.delaware.oh.us/.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Expansion won't interrupt county sewer-plant operations
