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Chicago Metro Southwest Branch

Village of Olympia Fields, IL

The Village of Olympia Fields, Public Works Department was having difficulties operating and maintaining 40 year old Lift Station that was in disrepair and located in the floodplain. The municipality enlisted Robinson Engineering to design, permit, bid and provide constriction oversight for a new “green” state-of-the-art lift station. Approximately half the cost was covered by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the remainder was paid for with local funds.

The entire existing lift station (building structure, pumps, controls, etc.) was in poor condition and was becoming more difficult and expensive to keep operational and had to be operational 24/7 to prevent sewage backups.

The station was considered a “confined space” requiring specific safety procedures; it was also extremely difficult to operate in rainy conditions, and was only accessible by boat during major storms. If the station operations failed, there could have been catastrophic consequences such as sanitary sewage backups in homes in the Graymoor subdivision as well as sanitary sewage overflows that would eventually flow to Butterfield Creek.

The project scope/solution involved building a new prefabricated control building with features including State-of-the-art controls, Natural Gas Generator, and Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA). The prefabricated method proved beneficial, with the components installed in a controlled environment, away from the elements and other obstacles present during fieldwork.

Key Project Elements

  • Sanitary sewer extension from existing lift station to proposed lift station

  • High-energy efficient pumps

  • Variable speed drives for reduced energy demand

  • Natural gas electrical generator that produces low emissions

  • Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) to allow 24/7 monitoring

  • Environmentally friendly (green) control building constructed outside the

  • Floodplain

  • Enhanced landscaping

  • Smaller driveway footprint to reduce the run-off

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