The Richland Creek Water Supply Program is a new greenfield project comprised of an entirely new water system for Paulding County, Georgia. PC Construction holds Contract 4, one of five separate owner-issued contracts to construct the entire scope. Utilizing the CMAR (construction management-at-risk) delivery method, PC’s work totaled over $93 million. The scope included the construction of the Etowah River raw water intake pump station with electrical building, a raw water reservoir pump station with electrical building, and the water treatment plant which also included a high service finished water distribution pump station. Construction occurred at three separate sites.
The new water treatment plant will utilize a Dissolved Air Flotation process for solids removal, conventional granular media filters with an air assist backwash system, Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) vessel filters and a six-million-gallon Precon concrete clearwell tank for finished potable water storage. The settled solid removal process is performed utilizing a conventional circular sludge thickener and sludge feed pumps to convey the settled solids to a centrifuge at the solids processing building. Multiple conveyors transport centrifuge solids to a sludge loading area for disposal offsite by roll-off style containers. The new administration building houses an extensive process laboratory, control room, offices, conference and training areas, staff lockers, showers and toilet facilities.
PC’s self-perform team acted as a separate subcontractor to the PC CMAR entity and constructed $46.8 million in work, including all underground piping systems, concrete, structural steel and metals, process equipment and process piping. Also included was a $5 million Marine Package at the Etowah River site to relocate the intake wet well. PC managed the installation of a 70-foot-diameter sheet piling coffer cell, dewatering operations, and micro pile foundation support system installation, and also designed and constructed a temporary in-river water diversion dam system to mitigate site impacts due to flooding.
The full raw water supply and treatment system is expected to be operational in the fall of 2020. All work associated with Contract 4 is complete and the testing of process systems is nearing finalization. Filling of the new raw water reservoir is underway and it is anticipated to take the next two months to achieve the water level required to support the conveyance of raw water to the new water treatment plant.
