neers brought to the table, many of the site challenges would have been insurmountable to develop on, and the contaminated land would remain dormant. This site required an inherent knowledge of the physical properties of soils, so intimate that when a soil departs sig- nificantly from its natural state the engineer can reasonably estimate its anticipated performance under different states of compaction and loading conditions. Other design professionals, including myself, brought their expertise to the design and treatment of the near-surface soils, to the utilities that carve through the site at shallow and deeper depths, to the structures that rise out of the ground and provide an entertainment venue to the public. But the geotechnical engineers provided design recommenda - tions to support all the remaining design elements. The result is a civic amenity that will serve the City of Wilmington and the greater com - munity for generations to come.
Land that had been sculpted into a harbor, a railyard, and an industrial storage facility could once more be re-imagined and sculpted into a marsh at the river to restore native ecology and a dramatic slope at the heart of the park to both elevate concertgoers on the west face and provide natural retreat for the city dwellers on the eastern slope. Future of Waterfront Spaces Riverfront Park serves as a valuable case study for how waterfront open space can flexibly accommodate diverse uses—from daily respite and recreation to large-scale concerts and civic festivals—while also prioritizing urban connectivity, enhanced ecologies, coastal resilience, and a renewed focus on water resources.
Sarasota Project “Hurricane-Proofs” Sewage Spills New Lift Station Designed to Withstand Category 3 Storms By Thomas Renner
Sarasota County sits on Florida’s Gulf coast and is home to 380,000 people, according to the 2010 census. Gulf-side sewage management has been a long-time challenge for the county, as residents had com- plained for years about foul odors and spills frequently occurred– in - deed, in 2004, 48 spills were reported. A national environmental group estimates sewage leakage into county waterways ranged from 618,663 to more than 1.1 million gallons. Susannah Lindberg , the Florida program coordinator for the nonprofit environmental group Clean Water Action, told the Herald-Tribune newspaper at the time: “That’s the point of our report: No one knows,’’ she said, commenting on the wide range of estimates. One particular area of concern for the county was Lift Station 7. Origi - nally commissioned in the 1980s, by 2004 it had become apparent that the station was nearing the end of its useful life when it leaked more than 500,000 of raw sewage into the Hudson Bayou. The waterway is in the heart of one of Sarasota’s most affluent neighborhoods and an estuary of the ecologically-sensitive Sarasota Bay. “Hudson Bayou suffers the indignities of many years of urban runoff,’’ said Sarasota ecologist Rob Patten to YourObserver.com in 2013.
Neighbors experienced “rotten egg” smells for years prior to the sew - age spill, but city officials were slow to address the issue or to commu - nicate with local residents. When an electrical shortage caused pumps to malfunction leading to another spill in February of 2005, the city was forced to find a long-term solution. Earlier this year, Sarasota city officials wrote the last page on the Lift Station 7 story. A new building, Lift Station 87 — at a final cost of $67 million, according to YourObserver.com , or more than eight times the original budget — will manage about 33 percent of the city’s wastewa - ter flow when all of the connections to the community come on-line, which is expected to be complete by July 2021. The 16-year saga of the construction of the new wastewater system includes dramatic project Lift Station 87 in Florida will have a capacity of 9.5 million gallons per day, treating about 33 percent of the city’s wastewater.
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csengineermag.com
June 2021
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