North Cape Reverse Osmosis
Water Treatment Plant, CAPE CORAL, FL

VALUE DELIVERED

Professional installation of a leading-edge reverse osmosis water treatment system; effective coordination with other contractors during a complex project, enabling early completion; increased water supply to meet the needs of a growing population; ability to accommodate future growth requirements; professional recognition; significant cost savings.

CLIENT OBJECTIVES

To meet the water resource needs of a growing population.

SCOPE OF SERVICES

In the 1990’s, Cape Coral underwent rapid growth, experiencing a nearly 60-percent increase in population. This explosive growth placed greatly increased demands on the available water resources, as well as the city’s treatment and distribution infrastructure. As one part of its effort to address this situation, the city signed a program-manager-atrisk contract for construction of a new 12-million-gallons-per-day (mgd) low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) water treatment plant.

Poole & Kent then contracted directly with the program manager, MWH, for construction of all plant facilities with the exception of the pre-stressed concrete-finished groundwater storage tank, and the electrical, instrumentation, and controls improvements. Though Poole & Kent’s contract scope did not include these improvements, the company was responsible for extensive cross-checking and coordination with other contractors to ensure that construction proceeded smoothly.

Poole & Kent’s key project components included:

• Four five-micron raw-water pre-treatment cartridge filters for removing particulate contaminants from the raw water upstream of the membrane process.
• One five-micron blend-stream cartridge filter.
• A 12-million-gallons-per-day (mgd) LPRO process, consisting of four 2.5-mgd membrane skids, each with a 600-hp high-pressure stainless steel vertical-turbine membrane-feed pump equipped with a variable-frequency drive (VFD).
• Anti-scalant and sulfuric acid storage and feed systems for chemical pre-treatment of the membrane feedwater to prevent mineral scaling and fouling of the membranes.
• Two permeate degasifiers for removal of hydrogen-sulfide gas from the membrane permeate.
• Caustic and hypochlorite chemical storage and feed systems for pH adjustment and disinfection of the membrane permeate after treatment.
• A 70,000-gallon finished-water clearwell with three 100-hp transfer pumps for post-treatment and pumping to finished water storage.
• A high-service pump station consisting of two 400-hp, 5.4-mgd pumps and two 600-hp, 10.8-mgd pumps equipped with VFDs for distributing the finished water to the city’s customers.
• Process, high-service pump, electrical, and operations buildings.
• Miscellaneous site work, yard piping, and ancillary systems.

The plant buildings, piping, and other infrastructure were designed and constructed to accommodate future plant expansion to 24 mgd, with an ultimate capacity of 36 mgd.

SOLUTIONS

This project was part of a larger undertaking by the city that won Engineering News Record’s “Southeast Best of 2011” in the best civil works/infrastructure category.

BACKGROUND

Cape Coral, the third largest city geographically in Florida, had a population of 154,305 in 2010, rising to 400,000 if you include the surrounding area.

PUBLIC/GOVERNMENT

UTILITIES

OPERATING COMPANY:
Poole & Kent Company of Florida

CLIENT:
City of Cape Coral

ENGINEER:
MWH Americas

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
Poole & Kent Company of Florida

SCHEDULE:
February 2007 to January 2010

COST:
$45 million

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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