City of Orange: Water Infrastructure Improvements

The City of Orange commissioned two major projects in order to improve the drinking water production and distribution system. The first project involved the rehabilitation of two ground storage tanks at Link Street. The second project involved completion of a new groundwater production facility on the western side of Adams Bayou.

Link Street Ground Storage Tank Rehabilitation

The two existing ground storage tanks at the Link Street site were originally constructed in the 1930s and the 1950s. The coating system in both the 1.5 million gallon and 2 million gallon tanks had noticeably deteriorated, allowing significant corrosion in the roof structure, walls, and floors on each tank. The roof structures were close to failure and the City was under a TCEQ directive to repair or replace both roofs. In addition to physical deterioration of the tanks, the existing electrical Motor Control Center, used to produce groundwater and the feed distribution system was construction in the late 1950s era improvements. The outdated components made obtaining replacement parts difficult to impossible. It was also not compatible with SCADA monitoring and control features.

SPI first evaluated potential solutions to these problems, including completion of a cost analysis to determine the best long-term cost effective solution. Discussion with the City led to the decision to replace both existing flat steel roofs with aluminum geodesic dome roofs, completely replace the existing coating by taking both tanks to bare metal, making needed repairs, and recoating with modern materials, and replace the aged MCC entirely. All work was sequenced to allow the plant to remain in operation at all times in order to ensure continued water service to the citizens.

Richard Drive Groundwater Treatment Plant

The second major project was driven by the quickly growing west end of the City. This area was served by only two older 12” water lines across Adams bayou. These two lines, part of the original system, were constructed prior to 1960, and both existing groundwater production plants and all ground and elevated storage facilities were located on the Eastern side of Adams Bayou. The growth in this area necessitated additional capacity for improved water service to citizens, commercial, and industrial customers. The new groundwater production facility, including a well, ground storage tank, and elevated storage tank, providing improved pressure maintenance while increasing service reliability to protect against water shortages in the event of potential failure of the aged lines providing service to the western side of Adams Bayou.

This project began with a water system study to evaluate needs and determine the most advantageous production facility location to optimize water pressures on the west end of the City. After this study was completed, discussion with local landowners led to the selection of a site on Richard Drive. The site was completely raw with a drainage district ditch along one side. SPI designed a entirely new water production facility, including a 20” well capable of producing 1500 GPM, chlorination and chemical feed facilities, a 300,000 gallon concrete ground storage tank, high pressure service pumps, and a 500,000 gallon elevated storage.

This project was bid and awarded under two separate contracts to be completed in the same time frame. After completing site improvements to allow proper drainage and ensure site access, the two contractors have shared the site.

The City had a number of areas of concern in their water and wastewater systems, including aging infrastructure, growth in developing areas of the city, and TCEQ mandated repairs and replacements. When the City made the decision to fund infrastructure investment, they turned to SPI to assist in developing the bond initiative through evaluation of infrastructure systems and completion of potential project cost analysis. SPI designed, bid, and managed the construction of all water and sewer infrastructure improvements funded by this bond initiative.