Great Water Alliance Program
Greeley and Hansen, A TYLin Company, served as Program Manager for the historic program to transition from groundwater wells to a surface water supply for the City of Waukesha.
The purpose of this Program was to transition the City of Waukesha’s water supply from groundwater to Lake Michigan water at a net zero water balance with the Lake Michigan watershed. The program involved the planning, designing, and constructing infrastructure with a 100-year useful life necessary to transition Waukesha’s water supply. It was the first to access Great Lakes water through the Great Lakes Compact. Successful implementation of the Program set industry precedence for solving water quality and water scarcity challenges for at-risk water supplies in other Great Lakes communities.
This multi-year, multimillion dollar Program included planning, design, and construction of 36-miles of transmission and force mains, a Water Supply Pumping Station, a Return Flow Pumping Station, outfall facilities, water supply connections, two ground storage reservoirs, a water tower, associated chemical feed facilities, and distribution system improvements. Project elements included program management, multiple route studies, permitting, steady state and transient hydraulic modeling of new infrastructure, water quality analyses and distribution system modeling in InfoWater to prepare the distribution system for the new water supply connection, preparation of Contract Documents, preparation of opinions of probable cost, and coordination between disciplines and subconsultants.
Project Highlights:
- Comprehensive system plan including an assessment of the City’s water resources supply’s ability to meet future needs throughout 50-year planning period
- Weaving critical piece of infrastructure through urban environments already congested with existing utilities
- Water distribution system model developed to assess system’s overall performance including the determination of water age for current and future user demands
- Evaluated financing and funding sources - one of 39 projects to be selected WIFIA loan funds across the country - secured USD 137 million in WIFIA funding
- Developed list of water supply and system capital improvements necessary to ensure the future needs of the City are met
- Designed a transmission main to serve a community as their primary water supply for a 100-year service life
- Procured over 90 permits while coordinating across seven communities, two counties, and multiple federal agencies