Owner:

Columbus Water Works, Columbus, Ga.

Project Summary:

A 6-million-gallon raw water tank in Muscogee County collapsed in April 2009, leaving Columbus Water Works (CWW) with a sizeable cleanup job, diminished emergency water reserves and a fast-track rebuild project. The tank had held untreated water from the Chattahoochee River. AMERICAN supplied the gate valves, ductile iron pipe, fittings and accessories for the two lines in the tank replacement project. Two 4-million-gallon concrete tanks were built to replace the single steel tank. Plant operations were normalized when the first 4-million-gallon tank went live in January 2010. The second tank went online in May of that year.

Key Players:

Founded in 1902, CWW serves more than 65,000 metered accounts within a population of 228,000. CWW’s water treatment capacity is 90 million gallons a day (MGD) with average daily usage at 32 MGD. The utility treats an average of 28 MGD of wastewater.

The project engineer was Jacobs Engineering Group (Columbus, Ga., office) via its firm Jordan, Jones and Goulding Inc. (Atlanta). Gordy Construction Co. (Fortson, Ga.) installed the tank pipelines and valves. Precon Corp. (Newberry, Fla.) built the concrete tanks. Georgia Western Inc. (Atlanta) supplied the valve actuator systems, including two EIM actuators for valves requiring remote operation. 

“AMERICAN was an excellent team member.”

 

What They Said:

Special challenges included “maintaining raw water supply for finished water production without reduction in water quality or supply to our customers while restoring normal plant operations as quickly as possible,” said Steve Davis, senior vice president, CWW Engineering and Field Services. “AMERICAN was an excellent team member in providing prompt and realistic material availability schedules and provided their technical expertise and value engineering, along with the project engineer, CWW staff and contractors. Together the team provided the best fast-track construction project to remove the water plant from emergency operation status.

“AMERICAN was able to meet the fast-track milestone dates for pipe, fittings and valve deliveries. The gate valves are performing well, as expected,” Davis added.

What They Used:

AMERICAN Series 2500 gate valves: four 12-inch MJ valves; two 54-inch flanged valves, each with a bevel gear actuator, stainless steel extension stem and motor operator; three 54-inch flanged valves, each with a bevel gear actuator, hand wheel, floor stand and stainless steel extension stem; and one 48-inch flanged valve with a bevel gear actuator, hand wheel, floor stand and stainless steel extension stem. AMERICAN ductile iron pipe and fittings: an assortment of mostly Lok-Ring and Fastite, restrained and unrestrained.