Meeting Future Water Needs for Over 1.8 Million People Through 2040

The North Texas Municipal Water District serves 1.8 million residents in 10 counties northeast of Dallas. With the population projected to double over the next 50 years in this 2,200 square mile area, additional drinking water supply was needed alongside ongoing smart water management and conservation efforts. 

Completed in 2023, the $1.6 billion Bois d’Arc Lake program and several related components now provide a new connection and additional water supply to the district. The overall program was a massive undertaking, with design and construction taking place concurrently on multiple projects involving nine firms.

The program is one of the largest construction projects and the first major reservoir to be permitted and built in Texas in nearly 30 years. The 16,641-acre lake — created by a 2-mile-long, 90-foot-tall dam — supplies water to the district’s service area and will eventually yield an average of 108 million gallons of water per day. The program included design and construction of a raw water pipeline, water treatment plant and treated water pipeline. 

The treated water pipeline is over 23 miles in length and was separated into two design sections, D and E. HDR provided design and construction services for Section E, which is a 9.5-mile, 84-inch steel pipeline. The pipeline crosses roadways, forested wetlands, a railway, existing utilities, creeks and a river. The design included over 4,400 linear feet of 108-inch tunnels with one tunnel over 2,500 feet in length.  

The treated water pipeline connects to the district’s existing North McKinney Phase III Pipeline in McKinney, Texas. In 2017, we provided routing, environmental study, and design and construction phase services for the Phase III Pipeline, which is a 72-inch- and 84-inch-diameter pipeline approximately 6.5 miles in length.