The city of Austin’s 51st Street Elevated Reclaimed Water Storage Tank is the industry’s first “green” elevated water storage tank.

Photo: Bphoto Paul Bardagjy

In addition to its primary function of providing pressure and peak demand regulation for the water system, the 2-million-gallon tank features a unique aesthetic design that integrates with the surrounding community while incorporating solar power generation and rainwater collection to further contribute to overall sustainability.

The project broke new ground with a unique design solution, and it was delivered within budget and timeline requirements with community support and cost-effective construction management.

Effective teamwork helped overcome challenges on several fronts. For example, the city and the design/construction team worked together to seek and incorporate public input into the overall process so that the community could see tangible results from good communications at every step.

Landmark Structures, the general contractor/construction manager, provided extensive constructability input into the design process to ensure that the original design intent could be delivered within the targeted cost and timeframe.

Landmark also effectively managed the concurrent system upgrades at a related wastewater treatment plant as part of the overall project, including instrumentation capacity issues that arose when more customers were added to the plant.

Key Players

Submitted by: Landmark Structures
Developer/owner: Austin Water Utilities, Austin
General contractor/construction manager: Landmark Structures, Fort Worth
Architect: CasaBella Architects, Austin
Civil, structural and MEP engineer: CDM, Austin