Wichita advances legacy plant retrofit as new facility faces clarifier design setbacks

Wichita advances legacy plant retrofit as new facility faces clarifier design setbacksThe City Council has authorized design contracts to convert the Main Water Treatment Plant for emergency use, providing critical redundancy as the new Wichita Waterworks project faces delays due to clarifier repairs.

The City Council approved contracts with Wildcat Construction and Garver to begin designing the conversion of the 1939 Main Water Treatment Plant for emergency use.

The new Wichita Waterworks plant is facing delays due to a design issue with its clarifiers, with the city not expecting to take ownership before the end of 2026.

Wichita Water Partners, the design-builder for the new plant, will bear all costs associated with the clarifier repairs and delays.

The city aims to maintain the old facility to allow for a 24-to-48-hour startup time in emergencies, ensuring redundancy.

The Wichita City Council has moved forward with plans to repurpose its existing Main Water Treatment Plant for emergency standby use, approving design and owner's representative contracts while receiving a critical update on design defects affecting the city's new water treatment facility. Gary Janzen, of Public Works and Utilities, told the council that the conversion of the 1939 plant is necessary to provide redundancy. Wichita is currently one of the few municipalities of its size with only one water treatment facility. The project aims to reconfigure pipelines and rehabilitate aging assets to allow the old plant to be brought online within 24 to 48 hours should the new facility face operational issues. The urgency of this redundancy was highlighted by an update on the new Wichita Waterworks plant. Janzen reported that a root cause analysis has traced performance issues to a design flaw in the new plant's clarifiers. Wichita Water Partners, the design-builder that has publicly touted a history of zero schedule overruns or construction claims across dozens of prior water projects, has acknowledged the issue. Three vendors have been hired to conduct an independent analysis of the root cause, with results expected within two weeks. Janzen emphasized that all costs associated with the clarifier repairs, including staff time and delays dating back to April, are the responsibility of Wichita Water Partners. "There will be no additional cost to the city of Wichita to our ratepayers for any of this work," Janzen stated. He added that the city is unlikely to take full ownership of the new plant before the end of 2026, as the repair timeline will require fabrication, installation, and subsequent confidence and performance testing. For the legacy plant conversion, the council approved a revised budget and contracts for Phase 1 services. Wildcat was selected as the design-builder with a Phase 1 cost of $900,000 to bring the design to 60%. Garver was selected as the owner's representative with a contract of approximately $365,000. The decision to advance the design to 60% rather than the initially planned 30% was made to establish a more certain guaranteed maximum price (GMP) and reduce the risk of future cost overruns. Janzen noted that the design for the legacy plant conversion will also be compatible with future possibilities for potable water reuse, a concept currently being explored in a water reuse master plan. The construction on the conversion is expected to take two years and will begin once the new Wichita Waterworks plant is fully operational and the old plant can be taken offline.