Virginia's Eastern Shore Sewer System Improvements - A small Communities Design-Build Project with Large Regional Impacts

The rural communities and small towns of Virginia's Eastern Shore have traditionally utilized septic systems for their wastewater treatment needs. With the regions notoriously high water tables and corrosive soil conditions, these systems can often leak and fail over time. To limit groundwater contamination and improve the regions wastewater treatment systems, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) has recently completed a regional small community collection system on the Eastern Shore. This extensive design-build construction project included the installation of over 30 miles of 4-inch through 12-inch sewer force mains, over 50 horizontal directional drills (HDD), complex hydraulic modeling, construction of 5 new pump stations, modifications to 3 other stations and complex environmental / historical permitting and research. This project conveys sewer flows from numerous small towns to the regional HRSD Wastewater Treatment Plant, where the water will be properly treated with modern technology before being discharged to coastal waters. Through this project and other local efforts, the picturesque towns of Wachapreague, Onancock and Exmore have been updating their sewer systems from old septic tank technology to modern collection systems including hundreds of grinder pumps and low-pressure force mains. As most of the region still utilizes well water for their drinking water supply, this project not only will improve each resident's sewer treatment, it will improve drinking water quality by eliminating the risks and impacts of leaking septic systems. By improving coastal groundwaters and improving sewer treatment effluent, the project will have regional and even national impact through its positive effects to the regional coastal aquaculture and most importantly the world-famous Chesapeake Bay crab, oyster and clam populations. The coastal nature of this broad project made for some challenging engineering and construction. The water table was essentially at the ground surface which complicated excavation and pump station wet well designs. The regions narrow roadways are maintained by the Virgina Department of Transportation (VDOT) which required the collection system piping to be primarily installed via HDD. The area is also subject to regular hurricane and nor-easter flooding, which required significant flood protections and storm hardening for the new infrastructure. These new Eastern Shore facilities will greatly benefit the regions residents, tourists, farmers, fisherman and anyone in the County who enjoys its world-famous Chesapeake Bay crab cakes, steamed clams or oysters on the half shell. This presentation will be of great interest to all small communities, Coastal communities, rural Counties, utility owners of any size and any contractor or engineer interested in the design-build process and the complex coordination between stakeholders that such projects require.