BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
“I think this is something that we need in the township, and I feel we’re going about it in the right way regarding the way it is going to be financed.” – Bob Davis council president NORTH BRUNSWICK – Water engineering firm CH2MHill introduced a preliminary process design for the $17 million upgrade to the township’s water treatment plant at Tuesday’s Township Council workshop meeting.
Last month, representatives from the township, CH2MHill and township engineer CME Associates agreed that the reconstruction of the water plant will cost less for the township than purchasing water from surrounding towns, according to a completed bulk water study.
The two-phase project, expected to have a soft cost of $13.5 million, will rehabilitate the precipitators, build new filters, and use pumps to pump the water into a clear well or the distribution system.
“I think this is something that we need in the township, and I feel we’re going about it in the right way regarding the way it is going to be financed,” council President Bob Davis said.
In Phase I, six new filters will be built along with a backwash pump, an electrical room and administrative space. The existing backwash holding tank will be converted to gravity thickeners. Rapid mixing facilities will be improved, radio-based telemetry will be implemented, a monitoring system will be installed, and a sludge polymer system will be added to handle waste.
Also projected is a set of capital improvements to be done by American Water, such as rehabilitating the pump stations, working on the filter press facility, improving the chemical feed system, rehabilitating precipitator one, sand blasting and painting all three precipitators, fixing the raw water screens, decommissioning the lime, carbon and water systems, and improving site security.
“We believe the township can spend $17 million, but we still need to work on this because we deferred a lot to NJ American. … We will work with the numbers to try and minimize the work NJ American is doing,” Paul Malmrose of CH2MHill said.
The total cost of phase one is projected today at $10.82 million, with the cost at the midpoint of 2008 being $12.62 million due to an expected inflation increase of 8 percent per year.
“Construction prices are increasing, and copper is where the increases have been the greatest. Copper has gone up 50 percent in the last month. Copper is 40 cents per pound where it was 7 cents a few years ago,” said water consultant Frank Mangravite of Public Works Management Inc.
During phase two, the polymer system for the clarifier, the solids handling building and the disinfection systems will be given attention. A new chemical feed system and maintenance space will be provided, and the existing filters will be demolished.
The timetable for all of the necessary repairs and reconstruction is anticipated to run through 2009. A complete preliminary design should be completed by the end of this July, with the final design being evaluated from September through August 2007. The project should be advertised by the end of 2007 with bids being received in November or December. The hope is that a contract will be awarded in January 2008 with construction occurring from March 2008 through October 2009.
“The facility is going to operate just as it is running now and [we will be] building this facility without interrupting anything,” Malmrose said of potential service interruption. He said that if the system is shut down for four or five hours at a time, there should be enough volume stored to not disrupt water supply, and that most of the critical work will be done during the winter months.
The next step is for the council to approve the $13.5 million bid price, authorize bonding to continue design work, obtain a loan from the state Department of Environmental Protection through the state Revolving Fund at half the current interest rates, and control budgets to ensure that water tax rate increases remain at 3 percent annually. An appropriate ordinance is foreseen at the council meeting in July.
“This will benefit our residents for a long time to come,” Davis said.
The existing plant pumps water from the Delaware & Raritan Canal into precipitators, then into either pressure or gravity filters before entering a clear well or the township’s distribution system. The existing precipitators were installed in the 1960s and the pressure filters were built in the early 1980s. The plant was upgraded in the 1990s after it was damaged by fire in 1989.