BALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) has been honored with three major regional engineering awards, DPW Director Rudolph S. Chow, P.E., announced today.
 
On Thursday evening, February 18, at the annual awards ceremony of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), Maryland Chapter, held at the Engineers Club in Mt. Vernon, the agency, and our consultants, were honored for “Innovative Excellence in Engineering Design” for two recently completed water projects and one wastewater project.
 
“I want to express my gratitude to our engineers and our consultants on this outstanding achievement,” Director Chow said. “We have accomplished very important tasks, in a timely and cost-effective fashion. These will greatly benefit our community. It is especially heartening to have our peers take note of the quality of this work.”
 
The award winning projects are:
 
Towson Finished Water Reservoir:
Location: Hillen Road, Towson, Maryland
Owner: City of Baltimore
Consultant: Gannett Fleming, Inc.
 
Since 1927, the Towson Finished Water Reservoir has been an integral part of the Baltimore drinking water system. More than 80 years later, the reservoir was showing its age in trying to meet the needs of 100,000 regional customers. This important piece of infrastructure was leaking into the basements of nearby homes, and was woefully inefficient in pumping capacity. In addition, it was non-compliant with recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules requiring all potable reservoirs to be covered or post-treated. Failure to comply with the new rules would have resulted in a staggering fine of $37,000 per day.
 
The massive rehabilitation transformed this aged facility into a “shining example of modern engineering excellence.” In a very restricted space, the facility now has not only improved water quality and reliability, but also doubled the reservoir’s usable water volume, eliminated seepage, and fully satisfied EPA’s requirements.
 
Construction of the Towson Finished Water Reservoir began on July 12, 2010, and construction was completed on December 22, 2013. The total cost of the project was $19,257,148.
 
 
Montebello Plant 2 Finished Water Reservoir:
Location: Hillen Road, Baltimore, Maryland
Owner: City of Baltimore
Consultant: Whitman, Requardt & Associates
 
In 2015, the City of Baltimore celebrated the Centennial of filtered drinking water in Baltimore along the shores of Lake Montebello. Our two water filtration plants at Montebello provide water to Baltimore City and surrounding counties. While both facilities have undergone upgrades over the decades, the open finished-water reservoir at Montebello 2 was deteriorated and needed to be covered to comply with the new Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.
 
Following extensive assessment, it was determined that an entirely new finished water reservoir would need to be built. Driven by hydraulic considerations, the new reservoir would need to be constructed at the same location as the previous one. This necessitated careful consideration of construction sequencing for demolition of the old reservoir, conduits and connections to the operating water system.
 
The new reservoir is cast in place concrete with a precast roof. It has a footprint of nearly seven acres and is divided into two separate chambers. The “green roof”’ consists of a waterproofing membrane, drainage board and soil over precast members, so the stormwater is largely retained on site.
 
Construction of the Montebello 2 Finished Water Reservoir began in December 21, 2009 and met EPA compliance on May 27, 2014. The total cost of the project was $43,578,240.
 
Rehabilitation of the Southwest Diversion Pressure/Gravity Sewer, Phase III
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Owner: City of Baltimore
Consultant: Rummel, Klepper & Kahl, LLP
 
In 2009, DPW conducted inspections of the Southwest Diversion Sewer and discovered several areas in need of repair. The Reinforced Concrete and Pre-Stressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe, up to 78 inches in diameter, starts as a gravity sewer, transitioning to a pressure sewer.
 
A combination of Cured-In-Place-Pipe (gravity portions), and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer lining (pressure portions), was used to rehabilitate the 4,600 linear feet of sewer. Massive bypass pumps, and over a mile of 24-inch bypass pipes, had to be installed and operated while this work was conducted.
 
The scope of this project represents the largest continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer installation completed to date in the United States for the internal repair of a large diameter pipe.

The in-situ (in-place) rehabilitation of large diameter pipelines with modern materials demonstrates the ability to effectively repair deteriorated underground infrastructure while limiting long-term surface disturbance if a replacement pipe had been constructed.
 
Rehabilitation of the Southwest Diversion Pressure/Gravity Sewer, Phase III
began in January 2014 and was completed in January 2015. The total cost of the project was $16,400,000. This was one of the many projects that are part of the over one billion dollars being invested in our sewer infrastructure as part of a consent decree with the state and federal governments.