Over the last five years, the Public Works Department has worked to assess and rehabilitate the water and sewer infrastructure throughout the City. While much work has been completed, such as the purchase of new variable frequency drives and new submersible pumps for the sewage stations, the overall system is in dire need of a complete renewal and replacement program. While staff continues to work on strategic initiatives to improve the state of the water and sewer system, much of the work completed to date has been addressing emergency projects.
In order to commence a long term capital program that would address the City’s aging water and sewer infrastructure, the Department of Public Works procured the professional services of various water and wastewater consultants in 2017. Immediately after negotiating the contract, the Department developed an engineer’s report of the water and wastewater system, a necessary document to secure new utility bonds. Those were subsequently successfully secured. The Department also commenced an effort to visually assess all above ground assets to determine their critical needs. This effort culminated with the 2018 Renewal and Rehabilitation (R&R) Report, which again documented the overall state of disrepair of the water and wastewater system.
While the R&R Report was underway, the Department began digitizing over 10 years of as-built data in order to map the city’s water and sewer system – a requirement to develop a hydraulic model and a master plan. This effort took a year to complete, as many records had not been properly kept and most records had never been digitized. Once the systems had been mapped on GIS, the hydraulic models could be developed and calibrated. Leveraging the hydraulic models and the R&R Report, the 2019 Water and Sewer Master Plans were developed to address the systems’ needs through a 25 year planning horizon. Along with the master plans, a 5 Year Critical Needs Capital Plan was developed.
At the October 23, 2019 Sustainability and Resiliency Committee (SRC) meeting, staff provided the members of the Committee a progress update on the Water and Sewer Master Plan. The Administration stated it has reviewed the plan and was ready for the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC) (formerly the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee) for review and to further discuss a financing plan. The SRC Committee made a motion to refer the Water and Sewer System Master Plan to the FERC to identify funding sources.
At the January 27 Resilience Retreat, the Department presented the 5 Year Critical Needs Capital Plan, to the City Commission. Following the retreat, at the February 28, 2020 meeting of the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC), staff presented the 5 Year Critical Needs Capital Plan and the committee made a motion to proceed to the full Commission to seek acceptance of the plan for the City’s water and wastewater system, and approval of the $24 Million available from bond proceeds subject to a future appropriation. Additionally, the FERC recommended commencing a rate study of the water and wastewater utility to determine financial capacity for the water and wastewater work associated with the Jacobs Engineering neighborhood prioritization and the remaining $61 Million of critical needs.
At its March 18, 2020 meeting, the City Commission made a motion to accept the recommendation of the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee, to accept the five-year critical needs capital plan for the City's water and wastewater system, to approve the use of the $24 Million available from bond proceeds, and to commence a rate study of the water and wastewater utility to determine financial capacity for the water and wastewater work associated with the Jacobs Engineering neighborhood prioritization and the remaining $61 Million of critical needs.
CURRENT STATUS:
The Public Works Department is working with multiple design consultants and contractors on the implementation of high priority critical needs projects. In addition, some of the projects are being designed by Public Works.
The ongoing projects currently fall under different phases of implementation as summarized below:
·
Water and Wastewater Mains Rehabilitation
- Fire Flow Project 7 – Upsizing of existing water main and installation of new connections for adequate fire flow protection in multiple locations.
- Status: Commencing design by Public Works Engineering.
- Fire Flow Project 1 – Upsizing of approximately 2,420 LF of 6-inch water main to 8-inches for adequate fire flow protection.
- Status: Finalizing scope negotiations with the design consultant, Ardurra, a design consultant.
- Fire Flow Project 2 - Upsizing of approximately 1,410 LF of 6 and 8-inch water mains with new 6, 8 and 12-inch water mains for adequate fire flow protection.
- Status: Finalizing scope negotiations with Ardurra.
- Fire Flow Project 13 – Upsizing of approximately 2,170 LF of 6 and 8-inch water mains with new 8 and 10-inch water mains for adequate fire flow protection.
- Status: Finalizing scope negotiations with Ardurra.
- Normandy Sewer Force Main – Replacement of approximately 2,500 LF of 12-inch Force Main along Normandy Isle.
- Status: Commencing survey and design by Public Works Engineering.
- Terminal Island Sewer Force Main – Replacement of approximately 1,400 LF of force main between Terminal Island and Star Island.
- Status: Design currently at 60% by consultant Hazen and Sawyer.
- Venetian Bridges Water Main and Force Main Replacement – Replacement of water mains and force main along the Venetian Causeway bridges including the replacement of subaqueous mains at the draw bridge.
- Status: Finalizing horizontal directional drill alternatives analysis to commence detailed design by Hazen and Sawyer.
- Water Pump Station Improvements
- Water Booster 2 Rehabilitation – Structural rehabilitation of pump house and replacement of discharge/intake 20-inch transmission water main.
- Status: Finalizing scope negotiations with 300 Engineering Group, P.A., a design consultant.
- Wastewater Pump Station Improvements
- PS 28 – Comprehensive upgrade and rehabilitation of Pump Station 28.
- Status: Issued basis of design task to Hazen and Sawyer for development of hydraulic alternatives to commence detailed design.
- PS 5 – Remedial Action Plan
- Status: Basis of Design Report for Basin No. 5 being completed by Public Works Engineering staff for moratorium resolution. Once basis of design is completed, detailed design will commence for inflow /infiltration repairs on force main upgrades
- Valve Assessment and Replacement Program
- Valve Replacement at PS 28 – Replacement of broken valve at Pump Station No. 28 42-inch discharge force main and installation of new valve on 30-inch influent force main.
- Status: Awarded to contractor Ric-Man Construction of Florida on 5/5/2020
- New Valve Installation on Venetian Causeway – Valve installation at the venetian causeway water or sewer to allow system isolation in case of emergency or for performance of maintenance or repair work.
- Status: Construction ongoing by Southern Underground.
- City-wide Water and Sewer Valve Replacement – program will repair or add new valves at key locations within water and wastewater system to accommodate operational flexibility
- Status: assessment being conducted by Public Works licensed operators to identify non-operational valves or locations where valves are missing.
- Sewer Pump Station Odor Control - Installation of odor control equipment at sewer pump stations 28, 10 and 15.
- Status: Coordinating issuance of PO and Notice to Proceed (NTP)
- SCADA & PLC - Installation of supervisory control and data acquisition system on all sewer, water and stormwater pump stations.
- Status: Finalizing best and final contract negotiations with bidders
- Wastewater Manhole Rehabilitation - Inspection, reporting and rehabilitation of structures and pipelines.
- Status: Procurement is issuing an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) to viable bidders
· Water Meter Replacement, replacement of water meters with new smart meter technology.
- Meter testing underway (4 test meters of different sizes installed).
- System integrations ongoing in coordination with the City’s Information Technology Department
- Finalizing contract negotiations with Badger Meter