Flood Mitigation and Restoration at the Sayreville Pump Station

The MCUA’s Sayreville Pump Station was inundated with 4 feet of water following Hurricane Sandy.

As the MCUA’s Consulting Engineer, R3M mobilized resources to provide emergency response and working day and night along with construction contractors, stabilized the pump station. We continue to support the MCUA in its efforts to permanently restore the damaged infrastructure and to mitigate the site against future flood events.

R3M personnel worked with MCUA staff to restart this disabled pump station, initially using temporary bypass pumping systems capable of 70 MGD within 10 days of the event, and ultimately restoring the existing pumps and motors and switchgear to its 300 MGD capacity. We worked with the USEPA, NJDEP and US Army Corp personnel to develop unique temporary wet weather overflow systems to prevent further flooding of the pump station during emergency restorations activities.

R3M is currently serving as Engineer of Record for the Design of Permanent Restoration and Mitigation of the Sayreville Pump Station, which includes emergency restoration response, mitigation planning, design, reporting and construction oversight of construction and startup activities at the SPS. We have developed design and construction documents for the permanent restoration and mitigation of the SPS through funding coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust (NJEIT).

The current project includes several critical Flood Mitigation features:

  • 1,700 feet of perimeter flood walls to protect the pump station from 500 yr flood event.
  • Four (4) influent throttling valves to protect the pump station from excess flows through existing trunk sewers ranging in size from 48” to 132” diameter.
  • New MDS Generator Building that provides a 10MW Standby Power Resiliency System consisting of three (3) 2.5 MW diesel generators and one (1) 2 MW natural Gas generator to maintain operations throughout future severe storm events.
  • Stormwater Pump Station to remove accumulated water within the flood wall system when river levels exceed existing site elevations.

The current project includes critical Permanent Restoration work:

  • Replacement of ten (10) existing 5kv pump motors and shafting ranging in size from 800HP to 1000HP.
  • Installation of six (6) new solid state motor starters
  • Replacement of existing motor control centers, wiring, conduits and panels.
  • Inspections and repairs to existing 36-inch cone valves and hydraulic operating system components.
  • Replacement of HVAC ductwork and systems.

We have worked with Federal and State environmental officials to gain regulatory approvals for the various projects, and we continue to work with these officials to maintain records and reporting requirements that will be critical for FEMA close-out of each of these projects.

We have worked with State-appointed Integrity Monitors for this Hurricane Restoration work at the Sayreville Pump Station, and continues to work with them on developing and implementing standards and protocols integrated with the Authority’s current front end contract documents to satisfy Federal and State reimbursement and Audit requirements.