By April, the power will go on in the $1.4-billion, 2-billion-gallon-per-day Catskill/Delaware Ultraviolet Disinfection Facility, the world�s largest. The plant is being built by the New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection in a county to the north to deliver safe drinking water to the city�s nine million residents.
“We are supposed to begin operation in March 2012 and put the entire facility online by May 2012,” says Mark Hanson, project director for the Malcolm Pirnie/CH2M Hill joint venture performing $82 million in construction management services. “On both dates we are about five months ahead of the consent- order schedule, and we have less than 2% change-order costs,” he says. “[The project] is on budget, on time and will help nine million people. What could be better than that?”