Schedule
Designed and constructed the project within a rigorous 27-month timeframe, meeting deadlines and remaining within budget
Smart BNR
Creation of a smart biological nutrient reduction system using data in real-time to help operators meet water treatment objectives
Collaboration
Partnership across Kimley-Horn offices ensured quick completion and heightened expertise to efficiently meet client’s needs
The recent development of the West Villages district brings shops, amenities, and about 20,000 homes to the City of North Port, Florida. Due to this rapid growth and advancement the City’s wastewater system could not accommodate for the sudden influx of people. Kimley-Horn was brought onto the project to help remedy the problem by designing the West Villages Southwest Wastewater Plant, providing a larger wastewater solution that could meet the needs of a growing community. As part of the design process, Kimley-Horn worked closely with the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) to design the plant, cutting down on time and cost of any potential redesigns in the future, decreasing the risk of mid-construction changes and updates to design plans.
The completed plant allows for 2.0 million-gallon per day (MGD) flow, which is expandable to 4 MGD and was designed on an aggressive seven-month schedule.
The facility included the design of the following components:
- Deep bed sand filtration designed for additional nitrogen removal as needed
- High-level disinfection with sodium hypochlorite
- Reclaimed pumping station
- Reject storage tank
- Aerobic digestion
- Centrifuge facility for biosolids processing
- Septage receiving station
- Full supervisory and data acquisition controls
- Operations and electrical control buildings
An additional component was the design of smart biological nutrient reduction (BNR) systems. Wastewater plants produce flow with many nutrients, and to adhere to high-quality water standards, our team needed to design a way to clean the water being used to irrigate public access land. Kimley-Horn created a smart BNR system that responds to real-time data from the plant, helping the operators control the plant, keep the water clean, and meet treatment standards and objectives.
Kimley-Horn provided construction phase services within an allotted 20-month timeframe, meeting all schedule deadlines on time and within the $37 million budget.
Kimley-Horn provided a full range of engineering consulting services, including:
- Construction Administration and Coordination
- Structural
- Site design
- Permitting
- Environmental
- Landscape Architecture
- Geology for the deep injection well
- Biological modeling
- Hydraulic modeling
To provide the extensive list of services above, our team of engineers and designers collaborated across many offices and disciplines to complete this project within the expedited timeframe, exceeding the client’s needs. Throughout the entire process, Kimley-Horn was in close coordination with the CMAR, the City of North Port, and additional stakeholders.
Wet Weather Preparation
During the wet season in Florida, the swampy greenfield site in which the plant would be constructed, needed to be raised about five feet to prepare for runoff. This would bypass any site problems in the future, allowing water to run off the site efficiently.
The site also needed so much wet weather storage that the Kimley-Horn team designed a deep injection well about 2,500 feet below the land’s surface for treated effluent disposal. Our team prepared a preliminary design report for the injection well system and submitted an underground injection control permit for its completion. Partnering with Youngquist Brothers Inc, Garney Construction, and ASRus, a project that could have taken up to two years to finish was completed in three months.
Preparing for Potential Barriers
In preparation for potential timeline barriers, Kimley-Horn developed a contingency plan in case of problems that could impede the plant going online within the projected timeframe. As to not disrupt construction in case of scheduling roadblocks, our team provided back-up plans for temporary in-line booster pumps that would connect to the force main that feeds the City’s plant. This temporary solution would allow for a greater capacity of flow, accommodating the growth in the community until the plant could be constructed and begin running. The plans were ultimately not needed but were created in case of emergency.
