A City Within a City: the Tale of the Relocation of a Sanitary Sewer Interceptor

摘要

When a municipality is surrounded by a larger city, it is inevitable that the two share key utilities or infrastructure. Such is the case with the City of White Settlement, Texas, and the Fort Worth. The City of White Settlement, a 5-square-mile borough nestled within Fort Worth, shares a sewer interceptor with the larger city. This Fort Worth-owned sewer interceptor crosses the City of White Settlement from east to west to connect the west side of Fort Worth (on the upstream) with the east side (downstream); this interceptor serves as the City of White Settlement's main sewer interceptor which shares the same alignment as the Farmer's Branch Creek in the City of White Settlement. For years, the storm-carrying capacity of the creek has caused flooding issues in the City of White Settlement. When the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) addressed the flooding issues by widening the creek, the City of White Settlement and the City of Fort Worth, as a consequence, were faced with relocating the sewer interceptor. Although the City White Settlement and Fort Worth have a cost-share agreement for sanitary sewer flows, the City of White Settlement initially assumed full responsibility for planning, designing, and constructing the sewer interceptor relocation since the sewer interceptor is primarily within its city limits. This outdated original cost-share agreement was revised for this project; the updated agreement considered new population, growth rates, and existing and projected flows to provide a more appropriate and equitable cost sharing arrangement for the project construction. This paper addresses the multiple stages of the project, the coordination efforts between all agencies involved, and the challenges the design team faced during project development.