Multifaceted Project Helps City Address Challenges

Built four decades ago, Grand Island’s wastewater treatment plant laboratory, administration building and operations control center were worn out. The 3,500-square-foot facility challenged staff and administration to maintain their professional standards in light of new and changing regulations and advances in equipment and technology. 

The facility needed improvements to accommodate additional staff, support current and future laboratory needs, improve the functionality of the existing space, provide a safe working environment, add training space, and upgrade the electrical and mechanical as well as the instrumentation and controls at the facility.  

The project included renovation of the existing laboratory, OCC and administration building, as well as an addition attached to the south side of the existing building to provide space for a state-of-the-art laboratory and operations center. The addition allowed for the phased renovation of the existing building, bringing it up to current construction codes and giving it a much-needed facelift. The new addition added approximately 6,900 square feet, bringing the building to over 10,000 square feet. 

The wastewater treatment plant laboratory, operations control center and administration building improvements project solves these challenges with:

• A new, larger, more modern laboratory, with triple the lab space to house the equipment needed to meet current regulatory requirements. An independent HVAC was installed to prevent cross contamination with the office and operations areas. This expansion provides technicians with more personal space and room to complete their work.
• A larger operations room with sufficient communications capacity to handle all of the control and monitoring of equipment.
• Additional office space to handle current and anticipated staff based on a 50-year projection.
• Improved security through the addition of access controls between the administration’s public area and the sensitive laboratory and operations areas.
• A large conference center to provide treatment plant staff space to host training sessions on subjects such as microscopic biology.

Completed in December 2022, the new addition was built, along with all of the plant’s control system, to allow the city to continue to operate the plant during the renovation.