Tampa Bay Taps New Sources To Stem Groundwater Depletion
Tampa Bay Water is reaching several significant milestones on a multiyear, multimillion-dollar program to develop, store, treat and transport new sources of potable water. A 66-million-gal-per-day surface water plant started production last month. After breaking ground in August, contractors are marshaling a large heavy equipment fleet to construct a 1,100-acre regional reservoir that will begin storing 15 billion gallons of water when complete in August 2004. A 25-mgd seawater desalination plant is near completion and is to begin production in November despite two bankruptcies on the design-build-operate team. To tie these components together and integrate them into the agency's existing system, contractors are placing some 70 miles of large-diameter transmission pipelines.
ACCESS Pipe work employs different placement methods, including a 40-ft-dia shaft for a tunnel boring machine. (Photo courtesy of Kenko Inc.)