Flood Plain Pump Buildings Receive an Upgrade

The Public Water Supply District No. 2, of St Charles County in Defiance, Mo., has grown from a small, rural water district outside of St. Louis, into the largest water district in the state of Missouri. The system covers a 400-mile service area and a population of about 75,000 people. As the system grows, so grows the need to upgrade facilities.

One project is the ongoing replacement of 12 pump buildings along the Missouri River. The existing structures are decades old and composed of concrete block on mounds of dirt. Located in a flood plain, they have experienced extreme deterioration.

Black & Veatch, the design engineer, considered the option of using fiberglass structures, but ruled it out because the remote stations are in locations where deer hunting is common. The choice was made to use low-maintenance, ballistics-resistant prefabricated Easi-Set precast concrete buildings, tested to UL 752, Level 5.

The pump buildings, manufactured locally by McCann Concrete Products Inc., a licensed producer of the national Easi-Set Buildings network, are being raised onto platforms approximately 15 ft above the flood plain.

Each 12-by-12-by-8-ft building comes from the manufacturing plant fully-outfitted with a fan-forced wall heater, electrical panel box, light fixtures, exhaust fan and R-10 insulation. A Bilco roof hatch provides ease in maintenance and pump removal.

“Each pump building took just two weeks to cast and fully assemble at our plant in Dorsey, Ill.,” said Mark Melvin with McCann. Trucked to the site, a crane lifts each building into place and then it is bolted onto the platform. Completed buildings have been put in service within two to three weeks of installation. “This is just one example of the applications we have available for water and waste applications. This industry is a perfect fit for our product solutions.”