Mitchell Water Treatment Facility | Mitchell, South Dakota

Water Treatment Facility Construction and Rehabilitation

 Mitchell, South Dakota

Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment Facilities

Twenty of the biggest cities in South Dakota dump 50 million gallons (190 million liters) of treated sewage into the rivers daily. Most of these facilities were formed during the 1950s and 1960s and now require modernization and renovations. In addition to years of processing sewage, recent floods have also taken their toll on the infrastructure. Mitchell, South Dakota, is prepared to invest $40 million in wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities.

Close Working Relationship Established

Selecting the delivery method, determining the construction sequence, and maintaining the service for a new or existing water or wastewater facility can be challenging and overwhelming. PKG Contracting needed a solid formwork partner and, due to an already established close working relationship with EFCO, chose EFCO for this project. The forming and shoring experts at EFCO provided additional knowledge that encouraged a unified well-organized working style from the beginning stages of project planning through the entire project development. This successful collaboration enabled the project to be completed efficiently without expensive changes and delays.

Walls for Clarifier Tank using EFCO REDI-RADIUS

As a part of the improvements to the wastewater treatment facility, PKG Contracting chose EFCO’s REDI-RADIUS system to form the circular walls of the 86’ (26.2 m) diameter clarifier tank. The clarifier tank walls were 16” (400 mm) thick by 15’ (4.6 m) tall. To minimize the number of formwork panels needed for the project, EFCO and PKG utilized one and a half sets of equipment to complete this tank in nine pours.  

REDI-RADIUS Holds Shape | Nine Concrete Pours

By cutting five template boards for the inside and outside radius of the tank, PKG could construct a shaping table to bend/shape the formwork effectively. Once the formwork was assembled into 16’ (4.9 m) tall gangs, each gang could be set on the table and shaped to the radius. Once shaped, the REDI-RADIUS forms held their shape for the duration of the project.  

Minimal Grinding and Patching with EFCO Formwork

EFCO’s steel formwork maintains structural integrity and produces a clean concrete finish with minimal formwork care between every pour. The concrete finish that EFCO formwork produces minimizes grinding and patching with excellent-looking construction joints between pours.  

Gang Handling Strap Minimizes Crane Use 

Using EFCO’s gang handling straps allowed multiple formwork panels to be held together for cycling. PKG could cycle all the formwork for each cycle in merely four crane picks. With the organization and experience of Drew Forsell and Jordan Schueler, PKG could easily pour concrete every other day. Jordan and his crew completed all nine pours in just a month.