\u201cThese projects support improvements to some of our most critical public works systems and facilities that impact residents\u2019 day-to-day lives \u2013 the city\u2019s stormwater infrastructure system and the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility (SWWRF),\u201d Welch said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Environment, Infrastructure and Resilience as one of our Pillars for Progress, my administration remains dedicated to identifying additional projects and resources to increase our community\u2019s ability to withstand future disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Brandi Gabbard requested a discussion on the SWWRF due to the \u201cenormity of the project and the dollar amount.\u201d City Architect Raul Quintana called it \u201cvery interesting\u201d and the \u201chighest priority\u201d among St. Petersburg\u2019s three sewage treatment plants.<\/p>\n
An $8.8 million Resilient Florida grant will help fund the $18.3 million guaranteed maximum contract with Atlanta-based Ajax Construction. The contractor will demolish the existing 50-year-old operations and maintenance buildings and combine the two into one environmentally resilient three-story facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose buildings are no longer operationally functional,\u201d Quintana said. \u201cThey don\u2019t meet the emergency criteria \u2013 daily situations that come up, and also emergency issues. The existing buildings are not rated for any kind of hurricane wind strength and, obviously, not rated for storm surge.\u201d<\/p>\n
That will soon change. Quintana said the facility at 3800 54th Ave. S., near Eckerd College, will \u201cbasically meet Cat 5 flood stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ajax will flood-proof the first level, which will house maintenance equipment and a welding shop. The second floor will feature technical staff offices, restrooms, lockers and a conference area.<\/p>\n
Quintana said the third floor will house the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. That will ensure the \u201cguts and brains of the whole system\u201d are 30 feet above sea level.<\/p>\n
The 500-year storm surge threshold is 28 feet. Quintana said the elevation was \u201cdriven by the grant, and to make this a highly resilient facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that the city has already submitted Resilient Florida grant applications for a similar project<\/a> at the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility on 62nd Ave. N. Mayor Ken Welch shuttered both<\/a> facilities before Milton made landfall, which prevented two-thirds of the city from flushing their toilets for several hours.<\/p>\n \u201cI think anytime we have resiliency projects like this happening in St. Petersburg, we want to celebrate and highlight that,\u201d said Councilmember Corey Givens Jr. \u201cSo, I just wanted to thank you for your hard work here. I\u2019m excited to see this one get started.\u201d<\/p>\n The Southwest Water Reclamation Facility is at 3800 54th Ave. S.<\/p>\n The $750,000 contract with Jacobs Engineering Group will help restore St. Petersburg\u2019s stormwater conveyance system. However, Gabbard requested the discussion due to \u201csome questions about the selection process, specifically the scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n She said many of the same contractors respond to municipal bids \u201cover and over again.\u201d Gabbard also noted that the city\u2019s evaluation committee initially gave the Dallas-based company lower scores than other respondents.<\/p>\n Brejesh Prayman, engineering and capital improvements director, explained that evaluators often update their scores throughout the process. A procurement analyst then tallies their anonymous submissions and the group names at least three project finalists.<\/p>\n Prayman said receiving between two and four contract proposals was once typical. The SWWRF project garnered 34.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very specialized category of work we were looking for,\u201d Prayman added. \u201cThat\u2019s why we had two of the larger firms and two of those really specialized firms.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs Engineering will develop asset management solutions, audit the city\u2019s stormwater conveyance system database, create inspection workflows and inspect and rate pipes. Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz questioned why that was not already happening.<\/p>\n Prayman said the city must inspect its entire system every 10 years. However, routine maintenance and proactive inspections are \u201ctwo different things.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanewicz called the project and cost \u201cfantastic.\u201d She said the data \u201cwould be helpful\u201d when responding to questions and complaints from residents.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate change impacts are intensifying, and my administration is committed to improving the overall resiliency of our public works systems so we can better serve our residents,\u201d Welch said. \u201cI want to thank city council for recognizing the importance of these investments, and for their ongoing support in strengthening our city\u2019s infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricane Milton\u2019s projected storm surge forced Mayor Ken Welch to evacuate the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility. Its new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-44101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SWWRF-1024x583.jpg\")
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