Modern Contractor Solutions February 2025 - 14

project profile
INFRASTRUCTURE
Improving a Water
Treatment Facility
coordinating new construction while maintaining continuous
water service
By Clemente Varas
I
n August of 2024, Kingsbury Companies, a Middlesex, Vermontbased
heavy civil contracting firm, successfully completed major
improvements to the Pleasant Valley Water Treatment Facility in
Brattleboro, VT. The project involved six major undertakings: the
demolition of the old plant; the construction of a state-of-the-art new
water treatment facility built from the ground up; the expansion of filter
units; upgrades to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system
and instrumentation; infrastructure enhancements; and underwater
maintenance. As a result, the town of Brattleboro has greater capacity
to serve the growing community with clean drinking water for decades
to come.
The water treatment facility draws water from the Pleasant Valley
Reservoir, which has provided drinking water to the Town of Brattleboro
since 1920. The plant plays a crucial role in supplying an average of
1.0-1.5 million gallons of high-quality water daily from the reservoir.
The project was initiated to replace an aging facility built in 1989, which
had outlived its roughly two-decade expected lifespan. The town of
Brattleboro began planning for the project in 2017, and construction
broke ground in the summer of 2021.
MAINTAINING SERVICE
Throughout the construction of the new facility, the old plant needed
to continue operating to maintain clean drinking water production at
all times. This added an extra level of difficulty as the proposed new
facility footprint was a mere 20 feet from the footprint of the existing
plant, requiring a high level of coordination and sequencing to enable
construction on the postage stamp site. Kingsbury used its 40 years of
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FEBRUARY 2025
NEW AND IMPROVED
The new water treatment plant comes with a first-in-the-state water
source HVAC system that uses no fossil fuels, but instead conditions the
air via the drinking water source heat pump to heat and cool the facility.
Not only is the new plant's heating system self-sufficient, but two of
the four filters were refurbished from the old plant. This saved the town
money, and the plant blends state-of-the-art technology while staying
mindful of the current and future economic and environmental impact
to the town.
Further upgrades to the plant included a complete replacement of
all instrumentation for the water treatment facility and raw water pump
station buildings, along with the remote locations around town that are
part of the water and wastewater system. A new cast-in-place concrete
process-wastewater equalization tank was also constructed along with a
buried precast concrete vault for process-wastewater flow control.
experience in contracting to ensure all parties involved, from the owner
to vendors and its many key subcontractors, coordinated their efforts
to ensure service was reliable and undisturbed for the customers. An
outline of the old facility's footprint is on site, just steps away from the
entrance to the new facility.
There were nearly 40 subcontractors specializing in various
disciplines such as concrete, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, sheet piling,
masonry, steel erection, and more, who supported this project. To
maintain operation of the old plant, the project required multiple
coordinated shutdowns and overnight work to complete tie-ins to the
existing system.
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Modern Contractor Solutions February 2025

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