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When the City of Fort Wayne completed their Water Utility Master Plan a number of years ago, several important projects were identified at the Three Rivers Filtration Plant (TRFP). The most important project identified was a new finished water high-service pumping station to replace the plant's original station. The project also required a major modernization of the plant's electrical system. The City of Fort Wayne retained Donohue & Associates, Inc. to design the new North Pump Building and Electrical Building at its TRFP. The facility produces clean drinking water for the City's 250,000 residents and businesses. The design of this critical project successfully addressed many complexities to meet the City's objective: Improve the reliability of delivering finished water to the City's customers.
This project is one of seven to receive the distinguished Honor Award for 2011. The Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) is an annual design competition that recognizes engineering achievements which demonstrate the highest degree of merit and ingenuity.
Of paramount importance, the design had to allow construction and commissioning of the improvements while keeping the plant continuously treating and distributing water. Water pressure in the distribution system would have diminished rapidly if high service pumping had been interrupted during construction.
Prior to this project, less than one-half of the 20 MG reservoir capacity could be used due to hydraulic limitations of the existing high service pumping systems. To provide a more reliable finished water delivery system, the City needed to increase the usable volume of its finished water storage facilities and upgrade its aging high service pumping facilities. The City also wanted to proactively address the entire plant's aging electrical system to ensure its continued reliability for many years to come.
The design team was challenged with finding a robust solution that would cost-effectively achieve the following goals:
- Significantly increase the effective capacity of finished water storage.
- Abandon reliance on East Pump Station
- Retain West Pump Station
- Fit new facilities on existing site
To meet these goals, Donohue designed the following improvements:
- New North Pump Building including a new finished water high service pumping station with a compact layout to fit the available space
- New Electrical Building including a new 4,160-volt power distribution system and the associated conversion of the aging and outdated 2,400-volt power distribution system to a 4,160-volt system without any disruption to treatment operations during construction.
- Pump motor replacement and electrical system upgrade in the West Pump Station.
The design significantly increased the effective capacity of finished water storage by more than doubling the usable volume of the existing reservoirs, from 8 MG to 17 MG. This 9 MG increase allowed the City to avoid construction of a much more costly additional reservoir.
Mark Gensic, PE, City Utility Manager stated, "…it was the extensive planning and construction sequencing that was done during the design that contributed greatly to the success of this project…Donohue’s series of drawings and detailed specifications detailing the multiple phases of the electrical work was key to the Contractor’s planning and scheduling – and key to the daily interaction with plant operations and maintenance staff during critical stages of construction."
Pictured below are Gary Cressey (left), Donohue Project Manager and Mark Gensic, City Utilities Engineer Manager.
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