Jacobs Water Projects Recognized at 2024 Design-Build Institute of America Awards

The Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) has recognized Jacobs, the City of San José and the Stanislaus Regional Water Authority with three awards in the Water/Wastewater category at the 2024 Design-Build Project/Team Awards.

The San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility Headworks Project received the National Award of Excellence, recognizing it as the best water or wastewater design-build project in the U.S. The project also received a National Award of Merit in the same category. 

The Stanislaus Regional Surface Water Supply Project also received a National Award of Merit in the Water/Wastewater category. The awards ceremony took place at the DBIA’s Design-Build Conference & Expo in Dallas, Texas, November 6 – 8. 

“With our fully integrated design-build capabilities at Jacobs, we have the privilege of partnering with our clients on some truly transformational projects,” says Jacobs Executive Vice President and General Manager of Design-Build and Operations Management and Facilities Services Greg Fischer. “We thank DBIA for recognizing these two significant design-build projects in California, which are providing their communities with more resilient and sustainable water infrastructure.”

Upgrading the largest advanced wastewater treatment facility in the western U.S.

The San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF) is one of the largest advanced wastewater treatment facilities in the western U.S. and serves the Silicon Valley area, supporting over 1.4 million people and 17,000 businesses. 

To better prepare the RWF for wet-weather conditions and population growth, the City of San José undertook a $129 million headworks upgrade to expand pretreatment capacity. The project replaced the original 50-year-old headworks facility and modified the secondary headworks to improve operational reliability and performance.

The new headworks facility uses a unique process sequence of pumping before grit removal, increasing the removal of grit from the collection system before large storms and reducing the energy required for pumping as part of the pre-treatment operations. In addition, the innovative design included some of the industry’s largest vertical turbine solids handling pumps within a water resource recovery facility. 

The new headworks facility was delivered by Jacobs under a progressive design-build contract and completed on time and on budget. Over 86,000 labor hours were worked without a days away/restricted time or recordable safety incident.

Diversifying supplies to improve long-term water security in California 

The cities of Turlock and Ceres in California have historically relied on groundwater as their sole source of drinking water. Both cities, however, are in an area where groundwater levels have declined due to past over-pumping – creating challenges for long-term water security. 

To develop a more sustainable and resilient water supply, the Stanislaus Regional Water Authority (SRWA) – a joint powers authority of the cities of Turlock and Ceres – partnered with the Turlock Irrigation District on a $195 million regional surface water supply project. Jacobs was contracted to provide design-build services for the project, which diverts and treats surface water from the Tuolumne River to supplement existing groundwater supplies.

The project consists of a new 15 million gallons per day (mgd) water treatment plant and raw water pump station, two finished water pump stations and 13 miles of raw and finished water pipelines.

The new diversified water supply portfolio reduces groundwater pumping within the over-drafted groundwater basin, helping to meet the requirements of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and allowing for replenishment and storage of groundwater for use during emergencies and droughts.