Water Transmission & Distribution

In May 2005, floods affected the northern region of Tauranga city resulting in the inundation of many properties.  In response to the flooding, Tauranga City Council implemented a city-wide Storm Recovery Programme. A major component of the Storm Recovery Programme was the Aerodrome Road Stormwater Catchment Upgrade, which began in September 2006 with capital works forecast at $5.6 million.

The Aerodrome Road stormwater catchment is widespread, covering 26 hectares in Mount Maunganui.  The environment is particularly complex as the catchment’s drainage flowed west via open drains and pipelines between buildings on private property to the harbour at the Port of Tauranga.  As this drainage was in a developed area, the upgrade could not be realistically undertaken without disruption to existing property owners and occupiers, and at a considerable cost to ratepayers.

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In partnership with two other firms GHD was retained by Onondaga County, New York to provide engineering services in connection with the design and construction of improvements to its 84 million-gallon-per day Metropolitan (METRO) wastewater treatment plant, with the objective of upgrading the level of wastewater treatment provided for ammonia and phosphorus removal.

The project established that the facility, which provided conventional secondary treatment (with seasonal nitrification and phosphorus removal to less than 1.0 mg/L), needed to be upgraded to provide year-round ammonia removal (1.0 mg/L as N for June 1^st to October 31^st, and 2.0 mg/L for November 1^st to May 31^st), and phosphorus removal to 0.12 mg/L TP for a 12-month rolling average.

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GHD was the lead design firm performing civil engineering and site development design for Archer Western Contractors on the Black Mountain Road Pipelines Project. The project involves construction of approximately five miles of 36-inch through 48-inch potable water transmission pipeline from Mira Mesa to Rancho Penasquitos in San Diego. The project also involves construction of two miles of 24-inch reclaimed waterline paralleling the potable water pipeline along much of the alignment. Included in the project are a tunnel crossing of Los Penasquitos Creek to minimize impact to sensitive habitat, complex traffic control required due to the alignment following high traffic volume roads and coordination with CALTRANS for crossing freeway right of way.

During preparation of the documentation required for the selection process, GHD, Foxfire and Archer Western worked together to develop plans and specifications to allow development of a construction sequencing plan, detailed traffic control plans, material quantity takeoff, and construction bid.

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With the growth of Auckland City, the combined stormwater/wastewater system was exceeding capacity during rainfall events, resulting in pollution of the Waitemata Harbour. A conventional project model could not guarantee the level of service that Metrowater wanted for their customers during the separation process so they decided on an Alliance model – one that was strongly customer focussed. The project goal of cleaning up Auckland’s harbour was a philosophy of shared ownership and responsibility reflected in the principle – "it's ours".

Metrowater is Auckland City's water and wastewater utility and was established by Auckland City Council to provide water and wastewater services to over 142,000 homes and businesses, reaching 420,000 people across Auckland City.  The area of operation covers 153 square kilometres with a water and wastewater network of more than 3,600 km of pipes. Metrowater’s expectation is that their customers receive the highest quality, reliable water supply possible and that Auckland City’s wastewater networks are managed in a cost effective, environmentally sound and sustainable manner.

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The Eastern Pipeline connects existing wastewater treatment plants and three new advanced water treatment plants, and transfers the purified recycled water produced to end users at Bundamba in Queensland.

As part of the high-performing Eastern Pipeline Alliance, GHD informed the strategy and implementation of the Eastern Pipeline design. The pipeline needed to cross approximately 50 major roads and water courses (including the Brisbane River) and traverse multiple urbanised areas with minimal community disruption.

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A prolonged drought during the late 1990s and early 2000s tested the security of the ACT water supply. In response to this a number of options to increase the reliability of the system during extreme droughts were considered.

GHD was engaged in 2004-2005 to undertake a study to investigate options for the augmentation of the ACT water supply. This initially included the consideration of three potential dam sites and associated pipelines, pumping stations and water treatment plants. The scope was subsequently widened to consider options involving the transfer of water from the Murrumbidgee River to the catchment of the existing Googong Dam. 

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Designed for our oldest client in Northern California, this water treatment facility was named Project of the Year by both the California Water Environment Association and American Society of Civil Engineers.

GHD provided civil and structural design and construction management and inspection services for of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District’s Turbidity Reduction Facility (TRF) located on the Mad River in Arcata, CA.

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The Hunua project is the biggest water pipeline project undertaken in New Zealand for many years and involves 30 kilometres of 1.3 to 1.9 metre diameter steel pipeline traversing Manukau and Auckland cities. It involves the crossing of Manukau Harbour, three motorways, three railway lines, a creek and eight streams.

GHD was engaged in 2005 to carry out an options study for a new watermain from ‘southern sources’ to ‘city centre’.  As a result of a competitive tender, GHD was jointly awarded the design contract in strategic partnership with engineering consultancy CH2M Beca in 2008. GHD services include:

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GHD, as the prime engineer, provided civil and marine structural design, services under a Design/Build project with Black Construction at the US Navy support facility on Diego Garcia.

The project consists of demolishing existing shoreline protection, installation of 700 linear feet of new rock revetment, and site grading.  Documents developed included a basis of design report and calculations, construction plans and specifications. Revetment design was performed by determining the wave environment associated with the revetment grading and comparing this to the wave return periods predicted in the storm analysis.

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Scottsdale Booster Station

The City of Scottsdale commissioned GHD to design Booster Pump Station Number 179 (BPS179) to provide water pressure to the downtown Scottsdale area. The station serves as a dual purpose facility. It supplies potable water at a higher pressure to serve new high rise commercial and residential condominium projects.  It also serves as a link to the downtown arts district. The project’s architecture complements the atmosphere of downtown Scottsdale.

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GHD was commissioned to undertake water use audits of 50 council sites for Greater Shepparton City Council (GSCC).

Data was collected via site investigations, review of existing documents, billing information indicating water usage and relevant GSCC representatives under each water use category.

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Toowoomba City dams reached critically low levels due to the drought in Queensland. GHD was commissioned to identify and minimise system losses in the city’s network through pressure management and leakage detection.

The project included the preparation of preliminary designs for two pilot district metered areas (DMA). The ultimate purpose of the DMAs was to facilitate the development and implementation of a focused strategy to demonstrate water saving targets could be achieved. GHD developed an innovative technique to identify those areas in the whole network that would benefit most from pressure reduction.

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The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) appointed GHD to lead the provision of asset management services in support of master planning and enterprise resource planning initiatives.

WSSC is the eighth largest water and wastewater utility in the USA, owning USD$12 billion of infrastructure assets. While instituting a range of short-term measures to combat the increasing incidence of water main breaks and leaks, WSSC is also taking a long-range strategic approach to address the growing challenge of ageing infrastructure.

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The AUD$2.5 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water Project is Australia’s largest water recycling scheme and the third-largest advanced water treatment project in the world.

It uses secondary wastewater from Brisbane and Ipswich, to produce 232Ml of purified recycled water a day. The project is the Queensland State Government’s response to unprecedented demand on its water supply due to population growth, climate change and the worst drought in recorded history.

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The Western Pipeline transports purified recycled water 80km from the advanced water treatment plant at Bundamba to the Tarong Power Station via Caboonbah. It also supplements water storage levels at the nearby Lake Wivenhoe reservoir.

The fast-track nature of the project demanded flexible, innovative design techniques. The Western Pipeline Alliance responded by using surge analysis models to optimise pipeline design that provided a 60 percent reduction in on-site welding and significantly reduced project times and costs.

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