National Recognition Award and 1st Place Engineering Excellence Award

Awarded By - American Council of Engineering Companies and Texas CEC

Bachman Water Treatment Plant - From the 1920s to the Present, Dallas, Texas
The Challenge
In 2002, the City of Dallas needed additional water treatment capacity. Because of its central location, the plant most strategically located to provide that additional capacity was the Bachman Water Treatment Plant, the city’s oldest. Built on the shores of Bachman Lake in the 1920s, the plant lacked the technology necessary to increase water quantity or assure compliance with emerging EPA water treatment criteria – but building a new facility would cost $2.25 per gallon of treatment capacity. A far less costly solution was required.

The Solution
To meet this challenge, CP&Y’s team was contracted to renovate, expand and modernize the existing Bachman Water Treatment Plant, even though it meant multiple contractors would have to work concurrently on a very constrained site and water production would have to be maintained throughout. Designing for maximum use of the aging infrastructure, CP&Y’s team added new state-of-the-art technologies that increased treatment capacity from 115 to 150 MGD and brought the plant into compliance with the EPA’s new regulations for a mere $0.75 per gallon of treatment capacity.

Past Meets Future
CP&Y’s design team also took great care to maintain the aesthetic value of the plant in its urban park setting by developing new architectural features that used elements of the original Colonial Revival theme combined with contemporary elements. The result was a facility that enhances the park experience instead of detracting from it — providing both tangible and aesthetic links between a proud past and a bright future.