Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant in Arlington, Va.
WOODBRIDGE, VA, Aug. 26, 2010 -- Fru-Con Construction has completed a $136.5 million contract central to a decade-long initiative to upgrade and expand the Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant in Arlington, Va. The project was completed within budget and on schedule.
Fru-Con began its assignment, officially known as Phase 7A, in October 2006. Phase 7A is part of a 10-year, $568 million modernization and expansion of Arlington's 73-year-old wastewater treatment facility. The project boosts the processing capacity of the plant from 30 million gallons per day (GPD) to 40 million GPD, while reducing odor and vastly reducing the discharge of biological nutrients into the Four Mile Run stream, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
Fru-Con upgraded existing treatment systems when possible and installed new chemical treatment technology to ensure the plant meets or exceeds the environmental guidelines of the federal Clean Water Act. The plant remained operational throughout construction as Fru-Con and plant staff coordinated more than 240 scheduled shutdowns to allow Fru-Con to tie in new facilities and systems.
Owing to its complexity, Phase 7A was completed in two segments. Segment I focused on building two new pre-stressed concrete flow equalization tanks with a combined capacity of 12 million gallons of wastewater. Fru-Con also installed two odor control scrubbers and upgraded two chemical feed facilities and portions of the electrical distribution network.
Segment II revolved around building a 30,000-square-foot filtration and disinfection facility equipped with 17 deep bed de-nitrification filters and two chlorine contact tanks. Extensive electrical distribution system upgrades were included in Segment II.
Over the 46-month life of the assignment, FruCon craft and subcontractor workers -- who numbered more than 200 at the height of production -- logged a total of 800,000 man-hours. Fru-Con devoted a full-time safety director to the project, supplemented with additional safety personnel for night shifts and periods of peak construction activity.
Founded in 1872, Fru-Con is the 10th oldest contractor in the United States. A member of Bilfinger Berger AG, a firm based in Germany that operates globally, Fru-Con provides construction services in four primary markets: environment, heavy industrial, institutional and government. The firm is based in Woodbridge, Va. To learn more, visit www.frucon.com
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