2025 West Best Projects
Award of Merit, Water/Environment: Newport Bay Trash Interceptor
Newport Bay Trash Interceptor
Newport Beach, Calif.
Award of Merit
Submitted by Burns & McDonnell
Owner City of Newport Beach
Lead Design Firm Burns & McDonnell
General Contractor Jilk Heavy Construction Inc.
Civil Engineer Burns & McDonnell
Structural Engineer Anchor QEA
Biological Monitoring and Permitting Tidal Influence
System Automation, Integration and Network Security Enterprise Automation
Modeled after Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel, this is the first floating trash-collecting water wheel on the West Coast. It’s adapted to operate in the flow of San Diego Creek, which drains a 120-sq-mile watershed into Upper Newport Bay.
The $5.5-million project’s scope consists of a floating trash wheel system and the landside improvements that provide truck access to the dumpsters located on the rail sled. As a moored vessel, the trash wheel is secured in place by large-diameter guide piles designed to withstand storm flow forces and changes in water surface elevations.
Two booms direct trash and debris toward the trash wheel, which uses rotating trash rakes to convey floating trash and debris onto a conveyor that moves the material up and into dumpsters that sit within a sled mounted to a short rail system.
The trash rakes and the conveyor are powered by a solar-powered, pump-driven, 14-ft-dia water wheel. Due to site constraints, container pickup by barge was not feasible. Instead, crews designed and installed a fixed rail system.
A solar-powered landside winch moves containers up and down the rail. Sustainability was central to every aspect of the Newport Bay Trash Interceptor. Fully solar- and hydro-powered, the system captures debris with no operational emissions.
The floating platform rises and falls with creek flows and tidal cycles, minimizing environmental disruption while ensuring resilience during storm events and future climate conditions.
