St. Joseph, Missouri, is a vibrant, industry-filled community located near the crossroads of Interstate 29 and MO Highway 36. With projected growth along the city’s Eastside, local leaders recognized that significant infrastructure adjustments were required and a sewer system and pump station to accommodate those changes was the first necessary step.
New Downstream Location Leads to Expanded Sanitary Sewer Services
The Easton Road pump station was constructed in 1979 and could no longer meet the demands being placed on it. The City of St. Joseph selected Snyder & Associates to replace this outdated and undersized structure with a newly designed wastewater facility in an enhanced location. Positioned 1.5 miles east of its predecessor, the new Candy Creek Pump Station opens up nearly 3,600 acres of an additional service area, which can be used for future community growth.
Map of sub-basins serviced by the new Candy Creek Pump Station
Our engineers and city staff strategically identified the new pump station’s site for its ability to serve the current drainage basin while expanding service to additional drainage basins in the region. To incorporate these areas, approximately 13,000 lineal feet of gravity sanitary interceptor sewer was designed and constructed, routing sewage from the added basins to the new pump station site.
Connecting this updated system to the city’s current sewer infrastructure required approximately 13,500 linear feet of force main to be placed. This pipeline, which conveys wastewater under pressure, was designed to cross an abandoned railroad route, County right-of-way, and an agri-business site before discharging into the community’s gravity collection system.
We understand the financial challenges that our clients face and work diligently to maximize the overall wastewater project value while minimizing design and construction costs. By determining the most direct path for the pipe and optimizing pump station design, Snyder & Associates was able to cut overall project costs.
Multi-Story Design Increases Pump Station Capacity and Efficiency
Snyder & Associates multidisciplinary engineering team applies objectivity and specialized knowledge to every project while also listening to our client’s preferences and making those a reality. This combination of skills led to the complete design for the Candy Creek Pump Station.
View of effluent pumps located on the lowest level of the pump station
Built as three levels extending approximately 30-feet below ground, the layout features ample space for a separate pump, motor, electrical, and generator rooms. Constructing the facility at multiple levels allows for easy access to the new gravity sewer as it conveys incoming effluent to the system.
As preferred by the city, this station is a wet well facility with dry vertical eddy current drive centrifugal pumps. Incorporating a dry pump room into the system increases overall safety and eliminates classified or hazardous spaces per the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) criteria. By creating the station in this manner, our designers allowed convenience for maintenance personnel and increased accessibility and safety for on-site operators.
Facility Design Easily Integrated Into Future Plans
Throughout planning stages, the city indicated that a wastewater treatment plant expansion to the Candy Creek structure was plausible at a future date. To accompany those plans, our team intentionally devised a pump station design that allows for the treatment facility to be seamlessly added to the current structure. Preliminarily plans were prepared for pipe re-routing and facility layout and even went as far as including the upstream headworks systems. Additional preparations were made accounting for future flow equalization pumps and a 1 million gallon equalization basin, which would serve as mitigation factors for wet weather flow peaks at the site.
At Snyder & Associates, we provide our clients with proactive, responsive, and cost-effective services. Throughout this process, we worked diligently to incorporate improvements that will enhance and accommodate the city’s growing population throughout the years to come.
