CRYSTAL CITY, Missouri — Jefferson County Water Authority (JCWA), which serves the cities of Herculaneum and Festus in Missouri, added a second collector well to supply water to the Cathy Jokerst Water Treatment Plant. The plant gets its raw water supply from the Mississippi River so its fluctuating levels can be problematic. The challenge stems from the fact that when JCWA’s existing horizontal collector well (HCW) was completed in 2003 the desired yield for the well was 4.0 million gallons per day (MGD); however, the well never produced at that rate. The need for redundancy combined with the economic growth in the region meant a solution was necessary. The new HCW will be operated as the primary water source and the existing HCW will become the redundant backup supply.

“We had big goals for this nearly $10 million project,” says Greg Camp, city administrator of Festus and member of JCWA. “We wanted to maintain our high-quality water, have a reliable water supply for the future and not have to supplement our water supply from our groundwater wells. This made for a complex project, but in the end, we achieved it all.” 

JCWA selected Burns & McDonnell to construct the new HCW as part of a progressive design-build approach. This allowed the team to develop project costs quickly and created more cost certainty.

“Understanding the critical nature of this project, we proposed the progressive design-build approach,” says Bryan Canzoneri, construction manager at Burns & McDonnell. “This facilitated decision-making throughout the project, from site evaluation through construction, and integrated the team to maximize collaboration.” 

The addition of the well will not increase water rates for water customers as Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority bonds were secured for the project. The project was delivered on time, on budget and with zero safety incidents.

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