The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (MDWASD) awarded MWH Global a contract to provide engineering design services for the comprehensive rehabilitation of three large wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Miami-Dade County, Fla., as part of the MDWASD's $1.6 billion consent decree program.
The three plants include the Central District WWTP—MDWASD’s oldest and largest asset with a treatment capacity of 143 million gal per day (mgd)—the North District WWTP, and the South District Wastewater Treatment Water Reclamation Plant, both with capacities of 112.5 mgd. Combined, these three facilities play a major role in providing clean water to the residents of Miami-Dade County.
MDWASD provides water and wastewater services to the 2.3 million people of Miami-Dade County. The department treats 300 million gal of water per day and disposes of 315 million gal of wastewater per day. In 2013, the county negotiated a Consent Decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice, and the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection to reduce sanitary sewer overflows, eliminate treated effluent limitation violations and ensure proper capacity, management, operation and maintenance (CMOM) practices. The Consent Decree consists of three major components: pump station improvements, CMOM, and improvements to the three regional wastewater treatment plants, totaling $1.6 billion over the next 15 years.
The MWH project scope will include preparation of preliminary designs, final designs, and construction documents, as well as permitting and bid services and design services during construction at all three WWTPs, ensuring the project meets stringent deadlines, and is in full compliance with Consent Decree programs.
The rehabilitation of the three plants is complex in nature due to many equipment systems and structures in excess of 30 years old. Extensive use of laser reality capture is envisioned to efficiently produce accurate “as-built” representations of existing systems. For design, major facilities will employ 3-D Building Information Modeling (BIM) with model development to Level 350 as defined by the BIM Forum Level of Development specifications.
Entering this project, MWH brings a track record of participation in the Community Business Enterprise (CBE) program, which seeks to partner with community business leadership to ensure that projects have positive impacts on the local economy and provide locally supportive project solutions. MWH is committed to meeting the 30% CBE goal on this project and has formed a team comprised of local firms in Florida. MWH is also committed to employing the local workforce and packaging projects to encourage local construction opportunities. This commitment will result in a long-term benefit to Miami-Dade’s business and local community through economic development, training and mentoring.
“Our long-term presence in Miami-Dade and in-depth project experience throughout South Florida will allow MWH to be a partner in this work and we look forward to developing and implementing innovative solutions alongside the leadership at Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department,” said Marshall Davert, president for government and infrastructure in the Americas and Asia Pacific for MWH. “These projects will enable us to continue to provide efficient water and sewerage solutions to assist Miami-Dade in its EPA compliance.”
The complete rehabilitation of the wastewater treatment plants is expected to be completed by Dec. 1, 2019.
