The Board of Estimates for the City of Baltimore has approved construction of the $430 million Headworks Project at the city’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant. A key element of the City’s $1.2 billion plan to comply with a 2002 consent decree, the new system will eliminate more than 80 percent of the city’s current sanitary sewage overflow volume.
To be built by joint venture of Clark Construction, Bethesda, Md., and Ulliman-Schutte, Miamisburg, Ohio, using construction manager at-risk project delivery, the new system will add four 1,000-hp pumps to help mitigate a longstanding hydraulic flow issue that prevents a key 12-in sewage main from emptying fully. During heavy rain events, excess flows results in substantial back-ups and overflows several miles upstream.