The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District and Donohue & Associates received a 2019 Engineering Excellence Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Missouri for the Lemay Pump Station Electrical System Transformation project. The award was presented at ACEC’s annual awards banquet in Kansas City.
Donohue designed improvements to transform the electrical system at Lemay Pump Stations 1 and 2 for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. The improvements significantly enhance the safety of District staff and protects equipment while substantially increasing reliability of the pump station to maintain flow to the 340-million-gallon-per-day Lemay Wastewater Treatment Plant. The $3.7 million project included arc-resistant switchgear, a low resistance grounding system, unique automated substation switching, and variable frequency drives with integral controls for the pumps.
The system was designed to be arc-resistant with exhaust plenums that direct potentially harmful gases and particulates away from operators. New switchgear inside of the new power distribution center with this feature offers substantively increased safety and reliability.
“Donohue & Associates successfully managed the complex construction sequencing constraints we imposed, due to our paramount need to maintain the facility, with its complex operational paradigm, in service at all times and minimize any subsequent loss of capacity,” said Rob Daly, Division Manager at the District. “They were able to identify a sequencing path forward that allowed for successful project execution.”
This project was a first-of-its-kind installation in the St. Louis area with arc resistant switchgear, Ameren integrated cold sequencing metering, and low resistance grounding that enhances the safety, reliability, and longevity of the District’s most critical facility for many years to come.
This award is made each year by ACEC Missouri to recognize an outstanding engineering achievement that demonstrates a high degree of merit, ingenuity, and owner satisfaction.