Florida Design-Build Award for CSU WWTP

JANUARY 2015 — The Central Sumter Utility (CSU) Wastewater Treatment Facility serves more than 21,000 citizens and 500 commercial connections in The Villages community in Sumter County, Florida. Garney worked in collaboration with design partner, Booth, Ern, Straughan & Hiott, Inc. (BESH), as a design-build team to deliver upgrades to the facility in 16 short months. Through this successful design-build partnership, the Garney-BESH Team returned more than $1 million in savings to CSU. These value engineering efforts were inspired by the design-build process, an alternate delivery method that upholds teamwork and communication. On November 6, our team’s success was celebrated upon receiving a Merit Award in the Water/Wastewater Category for the Florida Design-Build Awards.

In addition to the accelerated project schedule, the Garney-BESH Team was challenged by several private residential houses surrounding the facility. These challenges were easily mitigated through the design-build process as all stakeholders were involved from the onset of the project. Over the past 15 years, the Garney-BESH Team has completed more than 60 design-build projects for The Villages totaling $100 million.

A unique feature of the 2.0 million gallon per day (MGD) plant upgrade included a process to recycle water for irrigation at the surrounding golf courses. Project coordination meetings throughout design, permitting and construction were instrumental in developing this concept in parallel with the Owner’s philosophy of conserving water and maintaining a healthy environment.

Additional components to the $12.7 million upgrade included installation of two 382,000 gallon anoxic tanks, two 737,000 gallon oxidation ditches, two 70′ diameter clarifiers, headworks, traveling bridge filters, RAS/WAS pump station, and four 150,000 gallon sludge holding tanks.

“We commend your team’s ability to complete projects on time and within budget,” said Trey Arnett, President of Arnett Environmental and CSU Owner’s Representative. “We have also been appreciative of your continued efforts to provide value engineering on our projects in an effort to reduce costs and improve operational processes.”