Port Sulphur Water Treatment Plant Post-Hurricane Damage Assessment & Improvements Design

Plaquemines Parish Government (PPG) contracted with Trigon Associates, LLC (Trigon) to serve as the Prime consultant for a physical evaluation and assessment of the Port Sulphur Water Treatment Plant (WTP), a 3 MGD water treatment facility in Plaquemines Parish, as well as the associated Raw Water Pump Station (RWPS). The WTP and RWPS were significantly impacted by Hurricane Ida. This project focused on identifying and documenting all damage to the facilities caused by Hurricane Ida and providing recommendations of the work necessary to restore the facilities to pre-hurricane condition.

Trigon and an electrical subconsultant conducted a site visit to perform an assessment of process, mechanical and electrical components of the WTP and RWPS, identifying necessary steps forward to bring the facilities back into operational condition. Trigon provided a detailed Damage Assessment Report that proposed a phased approach to the restoration of the facilities, with the goal of expediting the time the WTP and RWPS could be returned to some level of initial service and then longer-term items to increase back to full capacity. The phased approach proposed that critical systems of the facilities would be returned to service and begin treating water before the WTP has been fully repaired. The report included project phasing and an opinion of probable construction cost to complete the recommended repairs. Trigon delivered a presentation to PPG to walk through a summary of the report. This effort was completed by Trigon in late 2021.

Trigon was then selected for the design of improvements based on the previously conducted damage assessment and the resulting report. The design also accounted for efforts completed in-house by PPG and their private operations contractor since submittal of the Damage Assessment Report to begin some level of repairs/improvements that they have been able to accomplish. As efforts such as these would continue to some extent while design is proceeding, Trigon worked in close coordination with PPG and their contractor to continuously update the design documents and the associated opinion of probable construction cost (OPCC) to reflect current status.

Due to potential budget limitations for PPG and the challenging situation of current market conditions for procuring certain types of equipment and materials (e.g., potential long-lead items), Trigon’s design incorporated mechanisms such as alternate bid items to ensure PPG can get the most out of their available funding while still achieving the project’s intended primary goals.