The grand opening of the Brightwater Center in late September 2011, celebrated the delivery of a new regional wastewater treatment plant and associated conveyance and outfall facilities. The Brightwater Treatment System — a $1.8-billion infrastructure improvement project in Washington’s King and Snohomish counties — was completed after nearly 20 years of planning, design and construction. Led by King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division, HDR and other team members collaborated on numerous projects to provide engineering, architectural, environmental and permitting services for the Brightwater program.

Our Role
We played a vital role in nearly every aspect of this immense project, beginning with predesign of the conveyance portion of the Brightwater Treatment System. During the predesign phase, we served as the prime contractor and team leader for 14 specialized subconsultants, providing the technical expertise associated with instrumentation and controls, tunneling, permitting, environmental studies for an Environmental Impact Statement, alternatives analyses, siting, public involvement, right-of-way/land acquisition, surveying, landscape architecture, and other areas.

In subsequent phases of the project, we led or participated in efforts to design conveyance elements that connect the new treatment plant to the existing system, and provided permitting and real estate services. A few of the many other activities for which we served as the prime contractor or as a subcontractor included mechanical engineering review of the treatment plant design, constructability review and final design review for the influent pump station, and review of the Design-Build contract formation support services.

Photo Caption:  Photo of Point Wells Portal Site, one of four portal sites for the 13-mile Brightwater Conveyance System.