Layne Street High Service Pump Station Rehab

The City of Topeka, KS, selected the joint venture team of Burns & McDonnell and CAS Constructors to replace pumps, valves, and pipes and to conduct other maintenance upgrades at the Layne High Service Pump Station (HSPS) and the Water Treatment Plant.

The Layne HSPS was constructed in 1953 with a firm design capacity of 35 MGD and discharge pressures from 90 to 105 psi. There are five vertical turbine pumps with three pumps sized for 10 MGD, one for 5 MGD, and one for 15 MGD.

Construction kicked off in March of 2016 with replacement of flow meters at the east intake for the plant and replacement of flow meters and valves in vaults directly east and west of the pump station. During construction, the total service outage was successfully minimized to four hours to enable replacement of the pumps during low demand. A planned pause in construction occurred over the summer to ensure the City would be able to meet peak summer demands while the new pumps were fabricated.

There was limited information about existing field conditions and the project originally included three temporary line stops with straddle blocks to isolate the pump station. The flexibility of the design-build process allowed the team to adjust quickly as field conditions were verified. The temporary line stops and straddle blocks were eliminated resulting in budget credits to the City. This allowed the City to add additional items to the project scope. The design-build process also allowed the team to quickly adjust work sequencing to eliminate any schedule delays. As additional funds became available to the City, other repairs were also added to the project scope, including rehabilitation of the HVAC system for improved mitigation of corrosion, replacement of the roof, and various other maintenance upgrades at the pump station and plant.