Week 29, Part 2- Lift Station 2 and Mechanical Building

Editorial note- this post was originally labeled as "Week 28". This was a mistake and a new post will be published that covers the REAL Week 28!

This trio of structures- Lift Station 2, Vault 4 and Tank 1- discharge the treated water from the plant and provide reuse water for the Belt Filter Press in the Mechanical Building. This is the first picture of the zone around the vaults in the early stages of backfill. We have had an open excavation here for a few months while the pieces slowly came together.

On top of the back, left structure (Lift Station 2) you can see the wooden forms for the pump housing walls-



In these pictures you see the finished upper walls and installation of the two pumps that will force the treated water off site, down towards the "Wetland Discharge" area-







Further progress has been made on the Mechanical Building. Last week we formed up and poured the stem walls above the foundation footings. Due to extreme cold the forms were left in place over the weekend and stripping began on Monday of this week.

Here is the west end of Mechanical, affectionately called the "Sludge Basin". This 3-walled open area will hold a trailer or dump truck to collect the sludge extracted at the end of the process. The first view is from the southwest showing forms still on the west wall-



This shot is from the northwest after the west wall has been stripped of forms-



Here is a wide view of the Mechanical Building from the east. The room in the foreground is the Blower Room. There the forced air is generated (and piped out) for the aeration system in the Treatment Building. The 2nd room away from the camera is the UV Disinfection Room with a thin entrance hallway running along the right side of it. Further back are the Belt Filter Press and Sludge Basin areas- (The Phosphorous Removal building is on the right/north)



Damp-proofing was required around the foundation of the UV Disinfection Room since it sits lower in the ground than the other rooms-





The plumber roughed in drain piping in the floor of the UV room as well as other rooms-



Finally Owens bolted up additional process piping from the south wall of the UV Room, began backfilling but finished only after the protection board was installed which you see in the final picture. That felt board protects the sprayed on damp-proof material.

That's all we have for this week!

Week 29, Part 1- Static Screens and Aero Mod System

Editorial note- this post was originally labeled as "Week 28". This was a mistake and a new post will be published that covers the REAL Week 28!

This week the Static Screens were set in place on concrete pads. This is the first process that the incoming Waste Water goes through as it enters the plant.

Here is the sequence for form building and pouring one of the pads close-up-







And a wider view of the pair of pads and screen units being prepared and set in place-







And let's pull out the measuring tape just to make sure!



One of those rare blue sky days, a view of the Operations Building before work starts on the roof-



Work continues in the Treatment Building, installing piping and valves for the Aero Mod aeration system-







Here we have a few wide shots of the site in the snow. You can click on these individually to see them in better detail in your browser- (hit the back button inbetween views)

Week 27, Part 2- Piping and Operations tent

All along while Contractors Northwest keeps the above-ground work going, Owens is doing the dirty work! Installation of vaults, manholes and process piping occurs as time and space becomes available.

Here Owens is working on "Line C" which carries partially treated water from the Phosphorous Removal building to the UV Disinfection room in the Mechanical building. It travels through a bypass vault between processes. Every line in the plant has a bypass option in case equipment goes down or needs servicing-



In this shot the Owens crew is behind the Treatment building working on "Line G" which circulates waste water from the site back into the system through Lift Station 1. Not much fun working in ground water on a 25 degree day!



So back to the Operations building progress. Remember that nice, clear day we started on?



The following day the temperature dropped below freezing and stayed there for a while. This made a heated tent necessary. Here's the view I saw driving in to work the first morning with a tent. The Treatment building is the structure in front of the tent-



With the sun low in the south you can see the work in progress from the north side-



On the inside it was a cozy 55-60 degrees with two propane burners on the floor-



As the first 4-foot lift of blocks was finished, insulation was placed in alternating cells-



Rebar went inbetween the insulation cells and the rebar cells were filled with grout during the Bond Beam pour. The "Bond Beam" is a complete horizontal grout pour, done every 4 feet. This was the first one and we'll see more of the progress in next week's update-

Week 27, Part 1- Concrete at Operations and Mechanical

While construction of the new Treatment Plant occurs, the old lagoon system is still operating. On a frosty, foggy morning it actually looks interesting...well to some people anyway-



This week the electricians finished rough-in work at the Mechanical building-



And we were able to do the stem wall concrete pour on a nice afternoon!



At the Operations building we poured in the floor slab-





This looks so much better than gravel and mess of conduit spaghetti!



The next day we were ready to set door frames and move right into CMU wall installation-





Here's the first corner being put in place. (Southeast, for the curious) All four corners were worked on simultaneously but this guy got his blocks in first!

Week 26, Short Thanksgiving week!

We came back to some snow the Monday before Thanksgiving. Down at the railroad crossing the first section of casing was in place on Friday. Now they just needed to weld a couple more pieces on and hammer it through the bore hole-



In the end we had our casing in place with a ductile iron section of Effluent Force Main, ready to tie into the system-



At Lift Station-1 a manhole was installed by Owens Construction-





The next phase at the Mechanical building was forming up the stem walls around the UV room. These three shots show some of the progress-







Last week the Operations foundation was filled with fine gravel after the under-slab plumbing and electrical work was finished. Here is the foundation grade covered with visquene ahead of a concrete pour scheduled after Thanksgiving weekend-



An oil-water separator was installed north of the Mechanical building. The first picture is from last week when a hammer was needed to knock some rock out of the way-



Once the hole was deep enough Owens successfully installed the vault. That's all for this holiday-shortened week!