During the process of completing preliminary engineering for an expansion into Vinton County, it became evident that JCWC needed to fortify its existing infrastructure before adding 45 miles of new waterline in Vinton County to its distribution network. We assisted JCWC in coordinating with U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA RD) to secure funding for this project.

The project included the replacement of approximately 48,000 feet of existing waterline with 4-inch through 16-inch waterlines. We assisted JCWC in achieving this goal by completing all necessary field investigations and prepared final design drawings and specifications for the replacements to meet agency, regulatory, and client standards.

JCWC also identified another necessary fortification during the preliminary design process – an issue at its wellfield, which had the potential to impact its reliable supply of water to customers. JCWC was previously supplied by one collector well with four horizontal laterals collecting the water. When the collector well needed to be cleaned, the well had to be completely pumped down and could not supply water to the water treatment plant (WTP). Typically, the cleaning and maintenance of one of the horizontal laterals could be completed between shifts at the WTP, avoiding interruption of flow to customers. If there were a situation where the well was not able to be placed back online before the next shift, JCWC would only have the water in its clearwells and other storage throughout the service area.

Working with JCWC, we developed a plan that included two vertical wells that could supply enough water to supplement JCWC’s supply during an extended outage of the collector well. We assisted JCWC by completing a site survey, developing final design drawings and specifications, test well coordination, and a water quality evaluation.

In accordance with USDA RD requirements related to infrastructure resilience, the new infrastructure at the site had to be designed to withstand the 500-year flood. Once design was completed and approved by regulatory agencies, we provided bidding, contract administration, and construction observation services for the project.

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