Brown and Caldwell services

Utilities

Integrated Planning Cuts Costs and Improves Water Quality

Brown and Caldwell is helping Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) develop one of the nation’s first integrated stormwater plans to optimize cost-effective low-impact development practices and `active” treatment facilities to satisfy NPDES, TMDL, and CSO requirements. This option allows SPU to consider improvement projects for sewage overflows and stormwater discharges at the same time to enhance water quality and potentially save significant costs. Since 2009, BC has supported SPU on the CSO Program and helped meet an aggressive schedule for submitting the draft Integrated Plan.

Maintaining Healthy Infrastructure

BC is leading the Program Management Team assisting Orange County Utilities (OCU) with establishing a sustainable Infrastructure Renewal/Replacement Program for gravity sewer, force main, pump station, water and reclaimed water systems valued at more than
$2 billion. The program strategy and robust implementation plan earned staff and management buy-in, while establishing a collaborative process to make key decisions about which assets to tackle and when, apply available funding to system needs in the best ways, and keep program priorities current and in-focus. The program has expedited condition assessment and renewal projects and established streamlined processes, financially sound plans, and effective tools and standards for infrastructure management and R/R implementation, reducing design and construction costs well into the future.

Innovative Water Pump Station Saves Energy

The 30-mgd intake and pump station was constructed as part of a dam replacement project at Lake Townsend, the primary water source for Greensboro, N.C. Rather than replicate the existing pump station, BC engineers presented a solution that improves the intake, reduces physical plant construction and requires less than half the horsepower to achieve the required water flows. The design—using innovative pump cans and finding the optimal pumps for the job—saved nearly $1.5 million in construction costs and reduced power consumption by almost 30 percent, a boost for the City of Greensboro`s sustainability goals.

Storage Tunnel Reduces SSOs

Design for Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District`s 21-foot diameter, 300-foot deep, 27 million gallon tunnel, the North 27th Street Inline Storage System. The project cost-effectively reduces separate sewer overflows for the district. Because the tunnel is integrated with existing deep tunnel storage systems, it also provides the district with the improved operational flexibility in dealing with high flow events.BC led the $65 million two-mile long deep tunnel design to support Milwaukee`s $1 billion Overflow Reduction Plan.