Houston’s Big Bet on Big Water Pipes (Source: ASCE)
By Mackrena L. Ramos, P.E., M.ASCE, Melissa C. Mack, P.E., PMP, M.ASCE, and Panduranga Kuruva, P.E., CCM
The city of Houston manages more than $1.2 billion worth of capital improvement projects for the region’s water system. The ultimate goal: converting the area from groundwater to surface water usage.
Since 2011, the city of Houston has designed and constructed more than 300 mi of major water transmission lines across the city, ranging from 24 in. to 120 in. in diameter. Involving multiple agencies and regional partners, the installation of these new transmission lines will transport surface water to regions currently supplied by groundwater, which will allow the area to reduce or eliminate groundwater pumpage and rely more on surface water.
The origins of this undertaking date to 1985, when the city started the Surface Water Transmission Program to address various mandates and regulatory plans under the Harris- Galveston Subsidence District, which the Texas legislature created in the 1970s “to regulate groundwater withdrawal in Harris and Galveston counties to end subsidence,” according to the district’s website. The subsidence district then focused on scientific research to develop its regulatory plan and enforcement between the 1970s and 1985. In 1985, the subsidence district expanded its regulatory plan by dividing the region into multiple regulatory areas with phased targets to reduce groundwater usage.
For more than 40 years, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. has been the program manager for the surface water program, focusing on strategic decisions regarding routing, modeling, funding sources, pipe materials, procurement methods, and contractor coordination to balance schedules and accommodate field changes. The city and LAN have addressed challenges such as disinfection issues and supply chain delays while staging the commissioning of multiple contracts.
Throughout it all, the emphasis has been on meeting the needs of the city’s Drinking Water Operations Branch, which runs the system that delivers reliable drinking water to the fourth-largest city in the United States.