Kentucky Infrastructure Project Awarded Engineering Design Feat of the Year
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky-based sewer collection system improvement project has been awarded by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) during its 2019 National Design-Build Project/Team Awards competition.
The $78 million Southwestern Parkway Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Basin project receiving the Best in Engineering Design Award and a National Award of Excellence (water/wastewater).
The project is a component of Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District’s (MSD) federal Consent Decree to mitigate CSO discharges to local waterways. The total scope of the Consent Decree includes 8 water improvement projects with a final budget of $1.15 billion.
Located in Shawnee Park, part of Louisville’s Olmsted Park System listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the project consisted of the design and construction of a large “capture and release” system to temporarily store CSO’s during wet weather events and gradually release them back to the collection system for treatment when capacity is available.
New facilities included a 20-million-gallon storage basin; associated washdown systems; a 30 million gallon per day effluent pump station; CSO diversion structures; and associated conveyance piping.
Preservation of Olmstedian design features in Shawnee Park – in particular the pastoral, undulating surface of the Great Lawn – made it vital that the project team design and construct a facility virtually invisible to the public. To achieve this goal, the basin was constructed below the surface of the Great Lawn with a walk-out operational access point concealed by park topography.
Outreach efforts resulted in support for a project that reduces CSOs while simultaneously incorporating community enhancements. These features include restoration of a historic structure for youth learning opportunities; improvements to basketball and spray ground facilities; landscaping; drainage enhancements via the creation of multi-purpose fields; and a new open-air pavilion and restroom structure. In addition to community enhancements, the project stimulated the economy by employing a 76% local labor workforce.
“We join DBIA in commending MSD for their visionary leadership, community engagement, and collaborative approach to this important project,” said Brown and Caldwell Midwest Area Leader Tim Block.
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