After years of rising odor complaints and operating costs, a $32.5-million facility provided a sustainable solution by replacing the existing belt filter presses and lime stabilization process with a centrifuge dewatering and drum drying process.

Unlike typical wastewater treatment plants, sewage and foul air are virtually nonexistent to this plant’s visitors.

Scope of work included cost modeling and schedule development for the original design-build-operate project to meet an accelerated 30-month design-build schedule.

This was the first time the city of Fort Worth used the DBOM delivery approach, which allowed for collaboration between the owner and project team throughout design and construction.

A key component of the new biosolids processing facility is a 14-ft-dia, 52-ft-long Andritz drum dryer. Manufactured in Graz, Austria, the drying drum made its way to Belgium before boarding a ship bound for Texas.

Photo courtesy of Archer Western Construction LLC

In mid-May 2022, crews placed the drum into the new building with two massive cranes. The facility’s single-train Andritz Drum Drying System (DDS140) is the largest rotary drum dryer in the world for biosolids application.

With the capacity to treat up to 166 million gallons of wastewater per day, the water reclamation facility is one of the largest in Texas, while the thermal drying facility is the third largest in the state.

This drying facility will process 100% of the biosolids produced by the city’s water reclamation facility as Class A biosolids fertilizer, which is then pneumatically conveyed to two storage silos where they are transferred to trucks and dispatched around the clock to local farmers and land application sites.

This highly complex facility had to be designed, engineered, constructed, commissioned and put in operation in less than two years.

To accomplish this, the team focused on early-out design packages to get the construction team started while the design team progressed to the next phase.

Photo courtesy of Archer Western Construction LLC

The construction team also contracted early with the pre-engineered metal building supplier to obtain the footprint and loading calculations needed to design the foundation and allow its delivery to coincide with its completed construction.

The lead design firm was able to expedite engineering by enlisting other firms while the contractor procured equipment and materials least subject to change.

To keep change orders from impacting the schedule, the contractor built a contingency fund into the contract for the owner, streamlining the entire process.

To meet the project’s ambitious schedule without sacrificing quality, the construction team turned to 3D modeling software to produce a virtual rendering of the entire plant.

The contractor started by importing the 3D models already designed by subcontractors, then progressed to constructing the multi-tiered platforms and steel framing before plugging in the heavy equipment.

Once established, the model was placed on a BIM360 account and shared with other subs to utilize in their own designs and capture their changes in real time.

In the end, the project team completed work on budget and ahead of schedule in May 2022.