Wellington announces completion of water plant expansion

WELLINGTON — The Town of Wellington on Friday, Jan. 10, announced the successful completion of nearly $93 million in major expansion projects at the town’s water-treatment plant and water-reclamation facility.

The projects, which were necessary for the town to meet capacity needs and regulatory requirements, got underway in spring 2022. The newly expanded facilities double Wellington’s capacity to provide water and sewer utility services to its growing population while also accommodating commercial growth.

“This is new territory for Wellington,” Wellington mayor Calar Chaussee said in a prepared statement. “These expansion projects will allow us to grow responsibly as a town while ensuring we can provide quality, consistent water and sewer utility services to our residents and businesses.”

The final cost of the treatment-plant expansion came in at $39,055,590, and the final cost of the reclamation facility was $53,109,734. Both projects were funded by a combination of loans from Colorado’s State Revolving Fund and funds from the town’s Water Enterprise Fund and reserve funds. The revolving fund finances the design and construction of water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure across the state via low-interest loans.

Both projects were finished on schedule and under budget, and both were designed to allow for further expansion in the future if needed.

Final completion of the projects is estimated for June 13, while work is performed on the pre-existing portion of the reclamation facility.

Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. was the general contractor for the treatment-plant project, while Moltz Construction had that role for the reclamation facility. Jacobs Engineering served as design engineer for both expansions.

“These projects required a great deal of staff time and management,” Nathan Ewert, the town’s deputy director of public works for engineering, said in a prepared statement. “We want to thank everyone who had a hand in successfully completing them. We had two very well-qualified general contractors and many great subcontractors involved. Wellington’s Public Works Department also received strong support from the rest of the town staff — particularly the operations staff at both plants along with the town’s planning and building, finance and administration departments. Without all this support, we wouldn’t have been able to complete these expansions on time and under budget.”

The expansion took the water treatment plant from a capacity of 2 million to 4.2 million gallons per day. The project involved 157,945 man hours, the burial of 6,500 linear feet of pipe along with 2,500 feet of interior pipe, 680,000 pounds of rebar and 4,000 cubic yards of concrete.

The water-reclamation facility went from a capacity of 900,000 to 1.8 million gallons per day. The work involved 185,370 man hours. A total of 11,100 linear feet of buried pipe and 4,220 linear feet of interior pipe were installed, along with 1,316,640 pounds of rebar and 7,700 cubic yards of concrete.

A ribbon-cutting for town officials to commemorate the completion of both projects is scheduled for March.

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