NASHVILLE, Tenn. – SSR has been awarded the Tennessee Chapter of the American Public Works Association (TCAPWA) project of the year for the company’s engineering design efforts on the City of Alcoa Water Treatment Plant in Alcoa, Tenn.

Completed this year, the $24.9 million project is Tennessee’s largest membrane filtration plant in use and is one of the largest in the Southeast. Membrane filtration is the latest technology in water treatment. The system's membranes are made up of strands of tubing with pores so small that bacteria and pathogens, such as cryptosporidium, can't fit through.

The 40,000 square foot building houses a plant that can treat up to 16 million gallons of water per day and can easily expand to treat up to 24 million gallons per day.

SSR provided the overall project management, civil, environmental, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, instrumentation and structural design and construction administration for the project.

“This project is a testament to what can be accomplished through teamwork at every stage of a project,” said Mike Bernard, Project Manager for SSR. “The collaboration between the clients, engineers, architects and contractors throughout the project produced one of the most innovative water treatment plants to date.”

The firm also provided consultation for the plant’s hypochlorite generation technology, a process that generates dilute sodium hypochlorite on an as-needed basis, keeping plant operators from having to use and store gaseous chlorine. Other noteworthy technology the plant uses includes supervisory control and data acquisition, variable frequency drives, powdered activation carbon and energy recovery.

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