Increasing Treatment Efficiency While Providing Resiliency Against Earthquakes, Sea Level Rise

San Francisco’s Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant handles 80% of the city’s wastewater, serving as critical infrastructure in the Bay Area. Situated in the downtown core, in a mixed industrial, commercial and residential neighborhood, many of the plant’s facilities are being upgraded to protect public health and the environment.

The new headworks facility — where combined sanitary sewage and stormwater enters the treatment plant — will have a conveyance capacity of 250 million gallons per day and provide better screenings and grit removal to minimize the impact of the downstream processes.

In many ways, the 7-year project is the impetus for a more sustainable San Francisco. It helps prepare the city for earthquakes and sea level rise, increases sewer system reliability and efficiency during storm events, reduces odor and contributes to the architectural aesthetic of the Bayview neighborhood.

Our team supported the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission with vast construction management services. We provided staff augmentation to administer a construction management/general contractor contract and performed quality assurance inspections.

The new headworks facility is the first of several major construction projects at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant as part of SFPUC’s $6 billion Sewer System Improvement Program. The headworks project replaces two separate, existing facilities — the plant’s 150 MGD dry weather and 100 MGD wet weather components; modifies the Bruce Flynn Pump Station across the street, as part of the temporary wet weather flow bypass during construction; and builds an odor control structure at a construction cost of $618 million.

The project is arguably the most complex in the entire program because the dry weather facility must remain in operation during demolition and construction. And the new facility was built in the same footprint as the wet weather facility. The work also required the temporary bypass of dozens of utilities, with a stipulation that they remain in operation. Despite these complexities, the team advanced headworks construction on schedule while coordinating with other projects at the plant.