With a sustained drought and historically low reservoir levels in West Texas, the city of Midland sought a new source of potable water. A Black & Veatch/Garney Construction consortium completed work on the T-Bar Well Field Development and Delivery Project in May.

The project includes 44 production wells drilled into the Pecos Valley Aquifer, more than 20 miles of 6-in. to 36-in. collection piping, a 2-million-gallon ground storage tank, a high-pressure pump station and more than 60 miles of 48-in. pipe to bring 20 million gallons a day to Midland.

The team had to contend with several obstacles, including routing the pipeline around numerous oil and gas wells and crossing hundreds of other dangerous pipelines, including three major oil fields, plus designing and installing pipes through a rock quarry.

TekRock Trenching brought two of the world's largest trenchers on site, along with four other smaller trenchers to help precut the ditch for pipe installation on the east side of the project. High-speed dozers were also used to prep and install the transmission main through sandy soils on the west side of the project.

One of the most difficult aspects of the project was procuring sufficient labor to build the pipeline. The project consortium drew upon its extensive labor resources to get the right people in the field.

Key Players

Owner Midland Co. Fresh Water Supply District No. 1, Midland, Texas

General Contractor Black & Veatch/Garney Consortium, Kansas City, Mo.

Lead Design Black & Veatch, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Construction Firm – Pipeline Garney Cos. Inc., Kansas City, Mo.

Construction Firm – Facilities Overland Contracting Inc., Denver