Spring 2007Volume 1 |
Piedmont Project Completion Draws Praise
The City’s Piedmont Road sewer rehabilitation project drew community praise for its on-time completion and the outreach efforts that were a part of it. The affected area, Piedmont Road between Peachtree Road and the Lenox Connector, is home to hundreds of businesses, all of which depend on the people who drive the tens of thousands of cars that use that stretch of road every day. Limiting traffic on that heavily traveled road would mean getting the cooperation of people whose very livelihoods would be adversely affected.
The Department started contacting local businesses and residents months prior to the project startup. With an effective outreach campaign, our DWM staff established a close working relationship with the people who would be affected by the month-long project.
The project, which involved the replacement of about 1,000 feet of sewer pipe and the extension of the sewer some 125 feet toward Peachtree Road, was necessary to provide the sewer capacity to support growth in the area. Those affected understood intuitively that such a project would benefit them in the long run, but they worried that the resulting traffic tie-ups would cause people to avoid the area altogether.
Crews worked around the clock to complete the project a week ahead of time. Meanwhile, Project Manager Tom Jones kept the community updated with regular emails describing the daily progress.
“We knew this project had the potential to disrupt peoples’ day-to-day lives,” said Commissioner Rob Hunter. “We were determined that we would make sure that disruption was as small as we could possible make it. Based on the complimentary emails we’ve gotten from the community since we finished the project, I’d say we succeeded. Our sincere gratitude goes out to all those who showed tremendous patience during this time.”
The Piedmont Road Sewer Capacity Improvement Project is part of the $3.9 billion Clean Water Atlanta Program to overhaul the City’s water and wastewater infrastructure and ensure clean, safe drinking water for Atlantans and our downstream neighbors..
Commissioner Rob Hunter expressed his gratitude for the patience of the business communities in the Greensferry and McDaniel sewer basins, which are dealing with street closures, detours and the mess that generally goes with major construction projects. “These are long-term projects, and we know they are inconveniencing our customers,” he noted. The sewer separation projects involve the construction of more than 150,000 feet of new sewers and the installation of more than 100,000 feet of new water mains. Because of the nature of the projects, most of the work involves open-cut construction, which is very disruptive. However, when it is all over, it will have been worth the hassle.” The City has set up detours and uses flaggers to help keep traffic moving in the area and is planning a spring block party to show its appreciation to area businesses. |
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CSO Projects on Track For On-Time Completion
One of the first combined sewer overflow (CSO) projects under the $3.9 billion Clean Water Atlanta Program is complete, while three others are slated to be finished this fall.
The $38.1 million Custer Avenue CSO Storage & Dechlorination Facility Project, which was substantially complete on March 1.
The new underground storage facility connects with the existing Intrenchment Creek CSO Storage Tunnel, increasing the total capacity to 44 million gallons. The Intrenchment Creek CSO Treatment Facility was upgraded to provide a higher level of treatment. The upgrades include the addition of fine screening, filters and enhanced disinfection systems to control harmful bacteria and other residuals. The cleaned CSO flows will be discharged into Intrenchment Creek, a tributary of the South River.
In addition to the Custer project, the Greensferry, Stockade and McDaniel Sewer Separation projects are moving forward in accordance with Consent Decree timelines. These projects consists of separating 174,000 feet of combined sewers, as well as the replacing existing water lines, hydrants and valves that are part of the Phase I Water Main Replacement Program within the Greensferry and McDaniel sewer basins. Thus far, the City has installed approximately 129,239 feet of sewer line in all three basins, and laid more than 81,251 feet of water pipe in the Greensferry and McDaniel bsains. All three projects are slated to be complete this fall.
When November 2007 rolls around, the City will have completed 57 of 58 Consent Decree Milestones and 10 of the 11 required CSO remediation projects. With the exception of the West CSO Tunnel project, and the need for more concrete tunnel lining than anticipated, every CSO project in the City’s long-term remediation plan will have been completed.
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Co-op Program Gives Students Experience
The Department of Watershed Management’s co-op program is a win-win-win situation for DWM, the students involved and City taxpayers.
College students who have earned at least 60 credit hours in a degree program and are currently enrolled in school get valuable experience helping the City track, identify and map its “buried assets,” infrastructure like pipes and mains that lie beneath the ground. In working with the students, DWM is able to extend its workforce by employing smart young people who can work up to 40 hours per week while attending school. Taxpayers benefit because these students perform necessary tasks at one-third the price of contractors.
DWM’s co-op program works with Georgia Tech, Clark-Atlanta University, Morehouse and DeVry. Interested students can apply through the City’s Buried Asset Management Institute at 404-589-2696. Once accepted into the program, students can work as long as they are still enrolled in school.
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Old Techniques Help Stabilize Streams
The Department of Watershed Management (DWM) is using old techniques to bring a new twist to streambank protection and erosion control. Crews are planting live stakes (prepared willow cuttings that will sprout in the spring) and installing biodegradable ground cover know as wattle on greenway properties the City owns. “The Chinese were using these techniques thousands of years ago. We’re just catching up now,” says Bill Brigham, DWM’s Principal Landscape Architect.
The new/old techniques offer a “soft” approach to streambank protection and stabilization. So-called “harder” techniques include the application of rocks and gabions (steel-mesh baskets filled with rocks) to build up and stabilize streambanks. The preferred approach incorporates both hard and soft techniques. “You put rock along the toe (edge where the water meets the bank) to armor the bank, then you pound these willow stakes in [among the rocks] along streambanks, and they root,” Brigham explains. “It’s erosion control through root zone development.”
Along with the placement of live stakes, crews also apply a wattle made from green coconut husks. “Water flows through it, but sediment doesn’t,” Brigham says. “Unlike with silt fencing, which is made of plastic, you don’t have to pull it out later. When you pull silt fencing down, you are left with exposed soil.”
Last month, DWM’s Greenway Division finished its first streambank revitalization on a 1,000-foot stretch of streambank at Wilson Mill Park. The City’s creek crossing crews rebuilt the streambank using large rock and gabions earlier in 2006, and greenway crews followed afterward, planting live stakes and adding wattle and a straw/grass seed mix. Such practices, says Brigham, “add more ‘bio’ to the ‘bio-engineering process of stream stabilization.” When the live stakes and grass seeds sprout this spring, the streambank will begin to develop a vegetated buffer (mix of grasses, flowering plants, shrubs and trees) that will help prevent erosion and protect the quality of the water, both in the City and downstream.
Under the Greenway Acquisition Program, the City has spent $18.5 million to purchase interests in 1,181 acres to be protected in perpetuity. Undeveloped streambanks help filter pollutants and protect creeks and rivers from the stresses of urban life. Part of the Consent Decree that governs Combined Sewer Overflows, the Greenway Acquisition Program will be completed this month.
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Hot Wash Participants Learn From Experience
On January 24, DWM employees had the opportunity to learn from another municipality’s water emergency. The learning activity, called a “Hot Wash,” was based on an actual water emergency that occurred southwest of Atlanta in West Point, Ga., late last year. Every few weeks, Emergency Response takes representatives from several DWM divisions through a fictional emergency scenario. These “what-if” situations, called Table Top Exercises, help participants decide what they would do if a particular emergency situation occurred. A Hot Wash, however, allows participants to learn from an actual emergency situation and incorporate what they learn into existing emergency response plans.
On November 17, 2006, the drinking water treatment plant that serves West Point’s 5,000 water customers was shut down because “an unknown granular substance [was found] in the troughs between the sedimentation basins and the filters.” West Point shut down the plant to investigate, called the local police department and the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD), and requested emergency water supplies from nearby Lanett, Ala.
At the January 24 Hot Wash, DWM representatives and people from other local and state agencies analyzed West Point’s emergency response from beginning to end.
According to Angus Reed, DWM Emergency Response Planner, a city the size of Atlanta can still learn quite a bit from West Point’s responses. “Every time something like this happens, it gives us an opportunity to review our own plans,” he says.
In the case of West Point, the water plant was offline from November 17 to November 22, when chemical laboratory tests of the granular substance showed nothing toxic or harmful in the samples. Atlanta, says Reed, would do things differently. “It’s contrasting a small, unsophisticated system with a large, sophisticated one,” he says.
Another application, according to Reed, involves Atlanta’s own water testing procedures. “We’re looking at our sampling procedures and equipment to make sure they are adequate” for an emergency situation, he says.
Participating in a Hot Wash also encourages people to ask questions such as, “How do we get a special piece of equipment quickly?” or “Which sub-units in the department can be brought in for specific purposes?” during an emergency, Dulaney says.
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Virginia-Highland Rehab Nearly Complete
After months of detours, lane closings and the sound of heavy equipment rumbling through the neighborhood, Virginia/Highland will soon have its streets back. Plus, residents will have the benefits of a rehabbed sewer system and new water mains to enjoy. After months of detours, lane closings and the sound of heavy equipment rumbling through the neighborhood, Virginia/Highland will soon have its streets back. Plus, residents will have the benefits of a rehabbed sewer system and new water mains to enjoy.
As of mid-December, work crews had evaluated 150,000 linear feet of Virginia-Highland sewer line and rehabbed 94,000 linear feet, with 15,000 linear feet to go. “We’ve evaluated roughly 28 miles of sewer, and we’ve repaired 18 of those miles,” notes Public Information Manager Diane Badger, who has worked closely with the community during the project. “So, we’ve repaired almost two-thirds of the sewer lines in Virginia-Highland.”
Along the way, the contractor, Insituform/EPR, demonstrated the robotic CCTV equipment for students of Morningside Elementary School at the school’s annual career day event. The kids had lots of fun manipulating the robotic camera and viewing themselves on the TV monitor inside the truck.By the time it is complete, the project is expected to cost around $10 million. Part of the 1999 Consent Decree negotiated to eliminate water quality violations from sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), the sewer rehab work includes evaluations, rehabilitation and replacement of defective sewer lines, as well as the upsizing of lines deemed too small to accommodate current use.
After completion of the Virginia-Highland project, crews will move on to Midtown, where sewer lines are currently being evaluated. The Midtown-Georgia Tech Water Main Replacement Project is slated to begin during the second quarter of this year. The affected area is roughly defined by 14th and Pine streets on the north and south, and Monroe and Northside drives on the east and west.
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The Nancy Creek Tunnel has won the “Honor Award for Engineering Excellence” presented by the Georgia Engineering Alliance. The award was presented to the City’s Project Manager Ade Abon and project engineer Mike Robison of Jordan, Jones & Goulding at an awards ceremony wrapping up the “2007 Georgia Engineers Week.” Previously, the tunnel had won the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ award for Large Project of the Year.
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DWM Spearheads New Resident Kit Development
New Atlanta residents now receive more than water service when they open water/sewer accounts. New customers also receive a New Residents’ Kit, which includes a booklet with useful information from each City department and several handy giveaway items – all housed in a blue, nylon drawstring backpack that sports the City’s seal. Creation of the kits was the brainchild of COO Lynnette Young and developed by the Department of Public Works and the Department of Watershed Management.
Representatives from all City departments, the Atlanta Development Authority, Atlanta Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and Brand Atlanta collaborated over nine months to create the informational booklet and contributed giveaway items. The Department of Watershed Management developed the materials and produced the booklet.
The recently annexed neighborhoods in Southwest Atlanta received hand-delivered New Residents’ Kits to welcome them into the City.
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Israelis Study DWM Sewer Inspection Methods
Atlanta recently shared its expertise in sewer inspection with engineers from Tel Aviv, Israel. Yuval Sela, chief engineer for Tel Aviv’s Cooperative Water Society, and Nelly Icekson-Tal, manager for Mekorot Israel National Water Company, viewed a demonstration of the sonar/TISCIT method of evaluating a sewer under full-flow conditions. Tel Aviv has a number of chronically surcharged sewers.
City staff used the Peachtree trunk siphon at Woodward Way for the demonstration. Alan McCloskey with Amtec Surveying, a sub-contractor on the SSES and Large Diameter Pipe Cleaning and Assessment contracts, and Tom Jones with the Program Management Team, coordinated and conducted the demonstration. The City uses sonar to inspect full-flowing sewers.
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The Atlanta-Fulton County Water Treatment Plant has become Georgia’s first publicly owned, privately operated water or wastewater treatment facility to win a Gold Star Award from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for excellence in occupational safety and health.
The plant is participating in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs, which commits it to employee protection beyond the requirements of OSHA standards. The plant is operated by joint venture partner Veolia Water/Khafra.
“Our employees are our most important resource,” noted Commissioner Rob Hunter. “That’s why this award makes us especially proud. It recognizes our ongoing commitment to our workforce.”
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DWM Employee Gets in NBA Hall of Fame – as a Speaker
Nettie Washington Douglass, senior outreach coordinator for the Department’s Office of Communications and Public Outreach, spoke to a sold-out gathering at Center Court at the NBA Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Douglass spoke as part of the 2006-2007 MVPs of Character Speaker Series.
At the Black History Month event, Ms. Douglass shared a “Living History” slide presentation of her famous ancestors, great-great-grandfather Frederick Douglass and great-grandfather Booker T. Washington. She spoke about their lives, the incredible obstacles they overcame and their spectacular achievements. “There is no obstacle you cannot overcome, nor is there anything you cannot achieve,” she said. “Frederick Douglass rose from slave to statesman and Booker T. Washington went from a slave cabin to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York."
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Official E-newsletter for the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management • © 2007