City of Dyersburg Roger Hawkins Water Treatment Plant Water Well No. 11 Replacement

The Roger Hawkins Water Treatment Plant is a traditional groundwater iron filtration plant and one of two water treatment plants that serve the City of Dyersburg. Built in 1998, the plant was originally constructed with three water wells to serve as the sources of raw water for the plant. Following only 20 years of useful service, one of these three original water wells, Water Well No. 11, experienced failure when the well’s casing separated from the structure, forcing the City to permanently remove it from service.  

Our team of water professionals worked diligently with the City and a Contractor to evaluate multiple rehabilitation options of the existing water well before ultimately determining the best value for the City was to plug the existing water well and construct a new one. The SSR team designed the replacement water well in a timely and cost-effective manner to equip the water treatment plant with the additional water source required to meet the growing water demands in Dyersburg. The team incorporated cost saving ideas into the design such as repurposing as much existing equipment as possible including existing pipe, valves, and electrical equipment to minimize lead times and construction costs. 

However, due to supply chain issues during the pandemic, the construction bid cost and proposed construction schedule for the replacement water well were still significantly higher and longer than the City had anticipated. To assist the City in reducing construction costs without sacrificing on quality of construction or performance for the critical infrastructure, our team worked closely with the Contractor again to value engineer the project and expedite the construction process. Our team also worked with state regulators to allow for the use of alternative materials to be used that didn’t have as significant lead times.  

The final replacement well was 915 feet deep, constructed with 20-inch casing and liner, and included 120 feet of 20-inch diameter screen. A vertical turbine pump was installed at a depth of 200 feet and designed with a pumping capacity of 2,200 gpm. The completion of the water well allowed the City of Dyersburg to regain full capacity of their water treatment in a timely manner, providing critical redundancy and resiliency, and a long-term solution to meeting the water demands of the City.