🎥 Wastewater treatment plant project ahead of schedule

Concrete walls 22 feet high are being erected at the new aeration basin for the Hays wastewater treatment plant.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Construction of the new Water Reclamation and Reuse Facility in Hays began June 1, 2017, and the work is now about 30 days ahead of schedule.

Date of final completion for the $28.4 million project is Sept. 15, 2019.

Eric Farrow, HDR field engineer at the wastewater treatment plant, presented a bi-monthly progress report to city commissioners this week.

“January was particularly cold in Hays and productivity falls due to the elements, but they have remained productive at the site by pouring concrete,” Farrow reported.

“The prize possession out there right now is the new aeration basin just due to sheer size,” Farrow said. “We’re looking at a single circular tank of 185 feet in diameter. The forms that are going in for the wall sections are about 22 feet high. So you take a 185 foot diameter and raise it 22 feet high, it’s pretty significant.

“We’re currently working our way counter-clockwise around the basin. Next week we’ll be pouring the seventh of 10 sections there. So within the next month, the basin will be closed up.”

Eric Farrow of HDR Engineering, the city’s Owner’s Representative for the wastewater treatment plant remodel.

According to Farrow, walls for the number one final clarifier are also going up and will be poured next week. There will be two final clarifiers downstream of the aeration basin.

The wastewater treatment plant, 1498 E. U.S. Highway 40 Bypass, must be overhauled to meet future nitrogen and phosphorus limits as required by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Environmental Protection Agency. The Design/Build team is Burns & McDonnell and CAS Constructors.

The public can watch the work via a live web camera installed by city workers on the northwest corner of the site looking to the southeast. The YouTube channel is available on the city’s website.