The 69th Complex was built by 29 separate contracts on only 44 acres near downtown Houston on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The plant’s capacity is 200 MGD and 400 MGD peak hydraulic flow. The construction cost was over $357,000,000. The contracts were built with the help of three federal grants with the remaining funding from state and local agencies.
Unique features of this project included:
- an on-site cryogenic oxygen generation plant;
- enclosed aeration basins to contain the oxygen rich air space;
- mix-media final effluent filtration;
- sixteen 180-foot diameter clarifiers;
- sludge drying facility;
- barge loading dock for dried sludge;
- One of the first distributed digital control system in a municipal facility; and
- the 144″-diameter line delivering wastewater from 35% of the city.
Tom served as the Coordinating Engineer employed by the managing partner in a construction management joint venture. Responsibilities included:
- working with the Federal and State agencies;
- coordinating shop drawing review and change order evaluation and negotiation;