A Kentucky-based sewer collections system improvement project has been heralded by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) during its 2019 National Design-Build Project/Team Awards competition.

The annual program promotes exceptional diversity in project size, sector and geography while celebrating innovative and collaborative teams that produce inspiring projects. Covering industries from aviation to water/wastewater, 2019’s project winners were honored at DBIA’s Design-Build Conference and Expo in November in Las Vegas.

Receiving the coveted Best in Engineering Design Award and a National Award of Excellence in the water/wastewater category, the $78 million Southwestern Parkway CSO Basin project is a component of Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District’s federal consent decree to mitigate CSO discharges to local waterways.

Located in Shawnee Park, part of Louisville’s Olmsted Park System listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the project consisted of the design and construction of a large capture-and-release system to temporarily store CSOs during wet weather events and gradually release them back to the collections system for treatment when capacity is available.

New facilities included a 20 million gallon storage basin; associated washdown systems; a 30 mgd effluent pump station; CSO diversion structures; and associated conveyance piping.

Preservation of Olmstedian design features in Shawnee Park – in particular the pastoral, undulating surface of the Great Lawn – made it vital that the project team design and construct a facility virtually invisible to the public. To achieve this goal, the basin was constructed below the surface of the Great Lawn with a walkout operational access point concealed by park topography.

Through the progressive design-build delivery process, the project provided social, economic and environmental benefits for the community.

At project kickoff, a multidisciplinary team of MSD, Brown and Caldwell, Ulliman Schutte Construction and Burgess & Niple “developed an outreach process for stakeholders to keep them involved,” says MSD Executive Director Tony Parrott in this project overview video:

Outreach efforts resulted in support for a project that reduces CSOs while simultaneously incorporating community enhancements. These features include restoration of a historic structure for youth learning opportunities; improvements to basketball and spray ground facilities; landscaping; drainage enhancements via the creation of multipurpose fields; and a new open-air pavilion and restroom structure. In addition to community enhancements, the project stimulated the economy by employing a 76% local labor workforce according to MSD officials.