Lake Havasu City Wastewater System Expansion Program Further Honored By The American Public Works Association's Arizona Chapter

The Lake Havasu City Wastewater System Expansion Program continues to earn industry awards, this time winning the American Public Works Association (APWA) Arizona Chapter’s Public Works Project of the Year Award (environmental category, projects more than $75M) and the Chapter Sustainability Award. On August 7, 2012, Atkins’ Carmen Kasner, PE, and Kevin Murphy, PE, who both played a significant role in executing the project, were recognized at an awards ceremony held during the 2012 APWA/Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Statewide Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kasner was Atkins’ project manager for the wastewater system expansion program. Murphy, who serves in public involvement and technical advisory roles for Atkins, was the city’s previous Public Works Director and has been involved in the program since its inception.

According to APWA, the Public Works Project of the Year Award promotes excellence in public works project management and administration by recognizing the important collaboration between the managing agency, the consultant/architect/engineer, and the contractor.

New this year, the Chapter Sustainability Award recognizes projects that best meet the national APWA Center for Sustainability’s “12 Principles of Sustainability.”

Atkins provided engineering and construction management services in the program’s final sewer areas: the Mockingbird, Trotwood, and Chemehuevi neighborhoods in the southeastern section of the city. Atkins’ portion of the program involved the largest amount of construction the city has seen in a year. In all, the ten-year program constructed hundreds of miles of new sewer lines, added 4.6 million gallons per day capacity and other upgrades to the wastewater treatment plants, and promoted community water conservation efforts.

The Lake Havasu City wastewater system expansion helps protect the community’s groundwater by closing more than 20,000 septic tanks and connecting residents to a new community sewer system. Substantially completed in November 2011, the program was finished two years ahead of schedule, and the final cost of $348M was more than $100M under budget.

On May 2, 2012, the Lake Havasu City Wastewater System Expansion Program also won the Arizona Water Association’s Project of the Year Award.

About Atkins
Atkins is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,400 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design, and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time-critical infrastructure projects. For more information, visit www.atkinsglobal.com.

*It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2012) and the 14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2012).

Recent projects include:

• Critical program management of storm protection works in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, providing expertise in coastal restoration, engineering, environmental and GIS support to rebuild defenses and protect habitats.
• Architectural and construction phase services for the new Tyndall Air Force Base Fitness Center, meeting LEED Platinum standards without impact to project cost.
• Equal partner in a joint venture that is providing full-service program/project management support for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a $7.8B project encompassing ecological restoration, water storage, flood control, and recreation.
• Key transit projects – member of joint venture providing general engineering consultant team for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority and project management oversight contractor for the Federal Transit Administration for major transit projects throughout the US.
• Lead firm on the Ascend, Joint Venture, LLC team, which is designing the $1.2B Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal roadway system at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
• Meeting stringent nutrient removal requirements for wastewater treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay area through design of upgrades to Howard County, Maryland’s Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission’s Seneca Wastewater Treatment Plant, and design and construction of enhanced nutrient removal facilities at Anne Arundel County’s Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant.
• Multi-year architecture-engineering construction management services for the National Park Service in the USA, including projects such as rehabilitation of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Administrative Complex at California’s Death Valley to meet the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification standards.