CISCO Awards Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) accepted two awards from the Construction Industry Service Corporation (CISCO) during its annual awards ceremony, including recognition as "Public Body of the Year."

The MWRD also received a Project of the Year award under the infrastructure category for constructing the Wet Weather Treatment Facility and Reservoir at the Lemont Water Reclamation Plant (WRP). The awards are part of CISCO's annual Pride in Construction Award Program, which recognizes the top quality union construction projects in seven categories and honors the efforts of an area educator, labor advocate and an Illinois public body.

The $29 million Lemont Wet Weather Treatment Facility and Reservoir project increased the size of the 18-in. interceptor sewer entering the plant site from the village of Lemont's combined sewer area. A new wet-weather treatment facility was also constructed to provide primary treatment followed by disinfection, which is now large enough to treat up to 10 times the volume of dry weather flow (approximately 6.8 million gpd). A 5-million gal equalization reservoir was also constructed to store and buffer the peak wet weather flows from Lemont's separate sewer area. The project was constructed by contractor Joseph J. Henderson & Son Inc., the Gurnee-based firm who submitted the project for nomination. The lead architect was CH2M Hill.

During storms in recent years, the Lemont WRP has received high flows from the tributary sewer systems resulting in bypasses to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Working with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the MWRD created the Wet Weather Treatment Facility and Reservoir project, and in the process created a way to protect the local waterway and improve area water quality downstream.

The Wet Weather Treatment Facility and Reservoir, located at 13 Stephen St. in Lemont, is a large in-ground concrete structure that measures 65 x 50 meters and is nine meters deep. The concrete walls are up to a full meter thick with a base that is 1.2 meters thick, making it solid, leak proof and capable of handling overflow from the biggest storms. The facility was a multi-phase project which included a new pump station, diversion structure for emergency eye level overflow, separator and disinfection, yard piping and tie-ins to an existing electrical distribution system.

In addition to honoring the MWRD as the Public Body of the Year, CISCO is recognizing Professor Robert Bruno, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with the Educator of the Year award and Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, with the Labor Advocate of the Year award.

Source: MWRD