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Donohue & Associates, Inc. and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District received a Best of State Award in the 2004 Engineering Excellence competition sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Wisconsin.
This project expanded and improved the preliminary treatment facilities at Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's South Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. The South Shore plant treats up to 300 million gallons of wastewater each day.
Highlights of Donohue’s services included multifaceted design of the entire preliminary treatment facilities, physical modeling with simulations of real-life conditions, and complex construction sequencing.
A collaborative approach between the District, Donohue, United Water Services, WDNR, and C.D. Smith Construction led to completion over a year ahead of schedule, without interrupting wastewater flow and treatment during construction.
"This was the single most complex wastewater treatment plant construction project undertaken in Wisconsin over the last 25 years." stated Charles Pape, Wisconsin DNR Construction Management Engineer and Project Reviewer.
Prior to the $21.7 million improvements, the South Shore facilities did not provide adequate grit and debris removal, which led to severe maintenance problems downstream. This project drastically reduced downstream process equipment failures and increased treatment capacity. A cleaner, more efficient, cost-effective operation has been achieved.
Unique to this project, a physical hydraulic model was constructed on a 12:1 scale. Real-life conditions were simulated to optimize flow, grit, and debris distribution to the four existing and three new grit tanks under varying operating scenarios. The modeling established criteria to minimize grit sedimentation in the headworks area by determining the length and turning angles for the approach section. It also demonstrated that adding automated gates to control flow velocity would further improve grit and debris distribution.
This project was one of six to receive a Best of State Award and was a finalist in the national ACEC Engineering Excellence competition.
Donohue has won four Best of State Engineering Excellence Awards since 2002.
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