Project Update - Fru-Con Foresight Reduces Construction Risk on $39 Million Flat Branch Pump Station

Twenty feet may not seem like much, but it made all the difference in reducing construction risk while improving sewage capacity in burgeoning Fairfax County, Virginia. Through Fru-Cons foresight, the four-year construction of the $39 million Flat Branch Pump Station & Force Main Improvements guards the structural integrity of an aging 48-inch sewer line over which the plant was initially to be built.

The project, begun in February 2009, will be completed in 2013. It will meet the needs of a growing commercial and residential area by increasing pumping capacity by 60 percent to 120 million gallons a day.

The Flat Branch project is being built for the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA) in Centreville, Virginia. Ninety percent of the work enlarges the capacity of the Flat Branch Pump Station. The remainder upgrades the UOSA treatment plant accepting sewage from Flat Branch. It includes construction of a new pump station, an electric building and an equipment building. Once the new pump station is completed, Fru-Con will refurbish the existing pump station with new pumps, piping and valves.

Fru-Cons value engineering expertise already has paid off when team members determined the planned location of the new pump station would risk damaging a large 48-inch sewer line, creating a costly environmental hazard for UOSA. The firm reengineered the new facility 20 feet from the pipe and created an efficient bypass valve to connect to the new pump station. The connection is being made through a doghouse manhole on the old line.

Fru-Con is currently excavating the new pump station and jackingshafts to house underground piping and pumps, including four 10,700-gallon-per-minute (GPM) and three 6,000-GPM Flyght Wet Pit Pumps in a 40-foot-deep pump station. Fru-Con has encountered considerable rock in its excavations and is optimizing limited space on the site for rock storage so it can be crushed and used as backfill.

Key Fru-Con project team members include Senior Project Manager Osama Madkour, Project Commercial Manager Peggy Dunn, Senior Project Engineer Steve Kobusch, Project Engineer Enrique Prangner, Project Engineer Miguel Rivas, Civil Superintendent William White, Site Superintendent Dale Louk, Project Safety Manager Danny ONeal, Engineer Intern Ryan Sylvia and Administrative Assistant Sabrina Goode.