A lot has happened since our introductory article about Suburban Water Systems’ Plant 128 project last April 2023.  Suburban’s Construction Management and Engineering team kicked off construction with the pre-construction meeting in July 2023.  The contractor started by installing new onsite piping that will allow water from multiple sources to fill the reservoir and storm drain piping to drain water from the site.  The contractor has also received and begun the installation of temporary tanks required to store water and keep the facility in operation while the 100-year-old reservoir is demolished and replaced with a new half-million-gallon welded steel tank.

Retrofitting and replacing water facilities at an existing site like Plant 128 presents more challenges than building new facilities on vacant land.  These difficulties include keeping the water flowing to customers during construction and working amongst old and abandoned onsite piping left in place throughout the previous 100 years at the site.  These are the types of challenges that Suburban’s Engineering and Construction Management teams can tackle through the application of technical expertise and years of experience.  This “in-house” capability provides Suburban’s customers with tremendous value, our engineering team can respond faster for less cost than outside engineering consultants.

This is also an example of the challenging, meaningful, and engaging work that makes Suburban Water Systems a great workplace.

In addition to replacing the existing reservoir with a new steel tank, the existing electrical equipment will be replaced and upgraded, and an emergency generator will be installed to provide power to the site during electrical power outages. 

Additional updates on this critical project will be provided during construction.