Pile Driving at Willow Lake Water Pollution Control Facility

Pile driving for the new headworks is scheduled to begin in mid-August.

Image courtesy: City of Salem

(KEIZER) - Beginning in mid August 2006, intermittent pile driving will be required at the at Willow Lake Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF) in order to complete the Headworks and Primary Treatment Improvements Project.

Pile driving is required to complete a deep excavation that will add new influent screens and influent pumps to the facility. This headworks structure is the ‘heart' of the plant and the collection point of multiple wastewater streams.

The pumps distribute flows throughout the plant where new primary clarifiers will also be constructed to handle the increased flows. The current capacity at Willow Lake is approximately 105 million gallons per day.

With the new construction, this capacity will be increased to 155 million gallons per day.

The Willow Lake Water Pollution Control Facility is located at 5915 Windsor Island Road North, in Keizer. This is approximately one-half mile north of the intersection of Windsor Island Road and Lockhaven Drive.

This project will take place mostly in the northern portion of the plant, near the original Administration building and maintenance facilities. Construction will take place between August 2006 and December 2009. Pile driving for the new headworks is scheduled to begin in mid August 2006 and continue intermittently through September 2006. This $90 million project is one of six projects required to comply with a 1998 Mutual Agreement and Order (MAO) between the City of Salem and the Department of Environmental Quality. The MAO requires Salem to eliminate Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) into streams and rivers under most conditions by 2010. Six projects were required to comply with this MAO.

• The Downtown Interceptor project was completed in 2004.
• The Outfall Diffuser at Willow Lake project was completed in 2005.
• Two additional Willow Lake projects, the Perimeter Utility Corridor and the Process Support Facility are in their final stages and will be completed in 2006.
• A fifth project, the Wet Weather Treatment Facility at River Road Park will begin in late October or November of this year and go through 2007.
• The sixth and final project is the Headworks and Primary Treatment project.

The pile driving work is scheduled to start the week of August 14th and continue intermittently through September. To minimize the noise and the time required, auguring, trenching, and alternate driving methods will be utilized whenever possible.

Pile driving will be restricted to daytime hours and will comply with all local noise ordinances. A current update will be available on the City of Salem Public Works Homepage at www.cityofsalem.net/departments/spubwork.