FORT MORGAN
Located in the City of Fort Morgan, Colorado, this project is cited because it was the first design-build wastewater treatment plant approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and financed by a State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan.
The Fort Morgan project consisted of a new 2.25 MGD treatment plant that replaced the existing facility. The new plant included: 2.5 miles of 36-inch trunk sewer. System hydraulics were worked out so that all gravity flow was utilized - eliminating a large lift station planned by the other design/build team. The project included:
Terry Kenyon of McLaughlin Water Engineers was the principal-in-charge and project engineer, with Ron McLaughlin contributing to the design and providing quality control.
The project used the design-build approach because of the very short compliance schedule issued by the State of Colorado. The project was completed ahead of schedule and below budget. With a contracted maximum cost of $9.3 million, the actual construction cost was almost $1.0 million lower, allowing the City of Fort Morgan to realize a savings of almost $750,000. With Terry Kenyon and Ron McLaughlin leading the project, the cost was approximately $2.5 million less than the next design-build proposal and significantly lower than anticipated in the preliminary report. The contractor credited the savings to the revised design concepts provided by Terry Kenyon and Ron McLaughlin, with two significant concepts being the elimination of a large lift station and a redesign utilizing a gravity flow sewer.