PROJECT

Morrison Water Treatment Plant Expansion

Under a progressive design-build agreement, our team performed the engineering and construction for the expansion of the Town of Morrison’s Water Treatment Plant, which also serves Red Rocks Amphitheater.

The project will double the plant's capacity to 1 million gallons per day (MGD), meeting growing water demand with a new treatment building with two parallel pretreatment trains and two membrane skids with chlorine disinfection. The existing building will be abandoned.

The expansion also includes a new flash mix system and two three-stage horizontal flocculation basins followed by installation of lamella plates. The existing pressure membrane skid will be abandoned in place and replaced with two (n+1) 1 MGD pressure membrane skids. A 42-inch chlorine contact pipe will provide an additional volume to satisfy chlorine contact time requirements. A new 350 gallons per minute (gpm) vertical turbine pump will increase the high service pump station firm capacity from 350 gpm to 700 gpm.

Client

Mount Carbon Metropolitan District

Location

Morrison, Colorado

Region

Southwest

Services

Design-Build for Water & Wastewater Infrastructure

Municipal Water & Wastewater

Advanced Water & Wastewater Treatment

Industry

Water

A new approach to development.

Mount Carbon Metropolitan District is a special district responsible for supplying water and wastewater services to the Red Rocks Ranch development. The district partnered with the Town of Morrison to expand the town’s treatment plant.

When project development steps fell behind, the district sought a new engineering partner to deliver the plant and meet commitments to housing developers. Our team was selected because our approach offered a design-build solution that saved time on the overall project schedule.

Solving for site challenges.

Our team developed a unique solution for a new treatment facility on a very compact and sloped terrain, with minimal impact to the existing facility and neighboring properties.

The plant draws its raw water from a blend of Bear Creek and the Cooley Reservoir. The existing pretreatment basin was undersized and leads to operational challenges, and the existing membrane filtration system did not have redundancy. The site is remote, difficult to access and very sloped.

The existing chlorine contact basin will remain in service with a new high service pump installed. Our team produced value engineering options, including an option to expand the existing 0.5 mgd treatment building rather than abandon it in place.

We prepared nine equipment packages for early procurement. The most notable package is the membrane filtration system. The preferred vendor was selected on factors including cost, energy use, service, references and warranty terms.