Sarasota News Leader

04/25/2014

Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/301152

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 19 of 120

station and build a new one. Now she is won- dering whether the underground design of Lift Station 87 might be yet another mistake. "I've started to look at best practices," she said. "Boca Raton is now raising all their lift stations. It may have been an unrealistic promise to put it underground." "We started this redesign using what's already there," replied Tidwell. He was referring to the underground structures built to AECOM's speciļ¬cations. He added, "We'd prefer it to be aboveground." Another one of Garland's recommended changes involves emergency back-up power. The AECOM design incorporated diesel-driven pumps in case the electrically driven pumps in the wet well lost power. But getting the diesel-driven pumps going full speed would take an hour, allowing sewage to back up into the system. Garland recommends using diesel generators to power additional electrical back-up pumps. He was thinking of installing the generators in another of the underground structures, but that might make them vulnerable to a Category 2 hurricane storm surge. "We could bring some of the underground equipment aboveground, elevated above a [Category] 2 storm surge," said Tidwell. "And then we could screen it." In other words, the equipment could be put in a building disguised to look like a home or business instead of an industrial blockhouse. Putting all the facilities underground raises the risk that a storm surge of 15 feet or more could exert enough water pressure to rupture the "lids" atop one or more of the four facilities. A presentation about Lift Station 87 during a project team meeting in November 2013 included this site plan. Image courtesy City of Sarasota Sarasota News Leader April 25, 2014 Page 20

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Sarasota News Leader - 04/25/2014