Murdock Park Asset Management and Capital Improvements

The Wessler team assisted City of Lafayette officials by preparing an asset management and capital improvements plan (CIP) to identify deficiencies and needs in the City’s drinking water system. City officials decided to move forward with the plan and phase one of the improvements were targeted to begin construction in 2019 and 2020. Wessler staff’s services included survey, design, bid and permitting of the water system upgrade and water main replacements. A six-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) booster station was added to Murdock Park at the southwest corner of Cason Street and North 22nd Street, as well as a three-million-gallon (MG) groundwater reservoir and 4,200 feet of water main.

Most of the City’s water customers are provided water through the Columbian Park reservoir and booster station. The new Murdock Park booster station and reservoir project provides a backup source of water if Columbian Park were to fail.

Wessler staff identified that by installing variable frequency drives (VFDs) for the new pumps at the Murdock station and updating the pumps at the Columbian Park station, not only would it avoid future related capital expenditures associated with performing service on the Columbian Park booster pumps, motors and reservoir, the VFDs will provide energy consumption savings of approximately $67,500 per year. The project design, due to a change in project delivery method, included a project amendment that reduced the engineering cost by $200,000. The project was completed within the timeframe expected by the client.