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DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION 3.7

• Providing plant access to facilitate chemical delivery and waste hauling, to allow plant
operations and maintenance staff routine traffic, and to permit visitors to the plant
facilities
• Siting of new facilities to avoid construction conflicts, allowing continual operation of
existing facilities and providing easy access for plant operation
• Interfacing requirements with existing facilities, including treatment units, piping, build-
ings, controls, power supply, and chemical feed systems
• Providing ample site space for future additions or expansion to the plant facilities, in-
cluding provisions for future tie-ins and vehicle/operator access
Plant hydraulic design should be conducted early in the project, with the hydraulic pro-
file developed to establish structure elevations and the interrelationship between facilities.
Plant facilities should be arranged on the site to take advantage of available physical re-
lief across the site with respect to plant hydraulics, locating treatment structures to mini-
mize earthwork where practical. Siting of plant facilities should also take into considera-
tion a number of other site factors, including

• Topography elevation changes across the site
• Plant site buffer and security requirements
• Physical features, barriers, or constraints within the site
• Floodplain limits and flood protection requirements
• Drainage and stormwater detention provisions
• Piping and conduits between structures
• Vehicle access and parking for plant personnel, public, and deliveries
• Natural gas, power, sewer, and telephone utility routing
• Plant aesthetics and public acceptability
• Archaeological, historical, or cultural resource protection
The final process design should also address a number of factors that affect other design
disciplines, including
• Final dimensions of treatment structures and buildings
• Utility requirements for process equipment
• Process equipment locations, dimensions, and operations requirements

Site Surveying. Topographic and property surveys should be made for the water treat-
ment plant site to provide the baseline conditions for developing the plant location design
and for obtaining many of the required permits. A permanent site benchmark should be
established at the plant site a location that will not be disturbed by future construction. A
legal description of the property is also needed, indicating all easements and rights-of-
way at the site.
A site plan is then prepared indicating property limits, site contours, physical features,
buried utilities and pipelines, structures and buildings, roadways, easements and rights-
of-way, and other features.

Geotechuical Investigation. The geologic conditions at the water treatment plant site
should be established by a geotechnical investigation. Any existing subsurface informa-
tion available should be collected first and reviewed to identify potential problems. The