Nation’s Best Design-build Projects Recognized for Collaboration

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has announced the winners of its 2018 National Design-Build Project/Team Awards competition.

The program promotes exceptional diversity in project size, sector, and geography while celebrating the innovative and collaborative teams who produce projects that inspire. This year’s winners, consisting of 29 projects across sectors including aviation, civic buildings, transportation, and water/wastewater, were recognized at DBIA’s Design-Build Conference and Expo on Nov. 8 in New Orleans.

Within the water/wastewater category, two Brown and Caldwell-involved projects received accolades:

•          National Excellence Award – RM Clayton Water Reclamation Center Headworks (City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management)

•          National Merit Award – Bush Beans Process Water Reclamation Facility (Bush Brothers & Company)

The headworks facility at the RM Clayton Water Reclamation Center, Atlanta’s largest wastewater facility, provides a critical function as the first line of defense in wastewater treatment as it collects and treats flows from a combined stormwater and sanitary sewer system. The varying sources of influent results in wide flow rate fluctuations containing large quantities of difficult to remove grit. To mitigate the harmful effects of grit accumulation and facility wear, the city selected a design-build team of Western Summit/Anatek, Inc./Brown and Caldwell to implement immediate and long-term solutions and provide reliability.

RM Clayton Water Reclamation Center

The $53.5 million project included headworks upgrades, replacement of coarse screening and grit removal systems with a 12-cell, multi-tray HeadCell grit extraction structure, and installation of new influent monitoring equipment to integrate with the digital control system at the 240 million gallons per day (MGD) facility. Complex excavation, drilling, and blasting of 35-foot sloped and 40-foot vertical areas within the facility was included to make room for the new HeadCell facility.

Addressing the city’s need to maintain operations, a temporary retrofit of the existing grit removal system was implemented to provide immediate grit relief and downstream process protection.

By leveraging the collaboration inherent in the design-build delivery method, the overall schedule was reduced by 18 months compared to a traditional design-bid-build delivery method.

Located rurally in the Great Smoky Mountains approximately 40 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, is Bush Brothers & Company’s (Bush’s Best Baked Beans) new $55 million Process Water Reclamation Facility (PWRF). Led by a design-build joint venture of Brown and Caldwell and Haskell, the new 2.1 MGD facility treats production process water to a high effluent quality for agricultural irrigation along with reuse within the PWRF and non-food contact production applications at the Bush Brothers & Company main production plant.

Bush Beans Process Water Reclamation

Bush Beans Process Water Reclamation Facility Credit: Antonio Valdivia

The design-build team collaborated with Bush Brothers & Company to deliver a cost-effective, aesthetically pleasing solution that complements, rather than intrudes on the landscape surrounding the Great Smoky Mountains. This socially responsible project was delivered $13 million below budget.

“Our warmest congratulations go to the city of Atlanta and Bush Brothers & Company for recognition and celebration of their visionary leadership and innovation,” said Brown and Caldwell Senior Vice President and Integrated Project Delivery Director Shawn Sock. “We are very honored to have been trusted with the opportunity to contribute to the success of these projects and are so grateful for the collaboration, dedication, and professionalism of the project teams we were privileged to join.”

The full list of winners, including project photos and descriptions, can be viewed on DBIA’s Project/Team Awards page.

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About Brown and Caldwell

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., Brown and Caldwell is a full-service environmental engineering and construction firm with 45 offices and 1,600+ professionals across the country. For more than 70 years, our creative solutions have helped scores of municipal, federal and private agencies successfully overcome their most challenging water and environmental obstacles. As an employee-owned company, Brown and Caldwell is passionate about meeting our clients’ needs and making a difference for our environment and communities. For more information, visit www.brownandcaldwell.com