revisions, fired contractors, lawsuits, and multiple city officials who have come and gone. Sophisticated System Lift Station 87, designed by McKim & Creed, will handle 9.5 million gallons per day in a two-story building in Sarasota’s Luke Wood Park. The scope of the project was technically complex and all-encompassing. The station was constructed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane storm surge and to allow Sarasota Memorial Hospital and other critical designated storm shelters to remain in operation after a storm event. Maintaining operations during hurricanes was an important concern for city officials and residents as a hurricane or tropical storm brushes the city, on average, every other year. The project involved an evalua- tion and design of the system, a lengthy microtunneling plan, lift sta- tion construction, roadway resurfacing, and park restoration. Workers installed new sewer mains along with reclaimed water to provide the area with an environmentally-friendly source of irrigation water, and aging water mains were replaced to improve water pressure. A Big Lift For Florida Community What: Lift Station 87 in Sarasota, Fla. is a new above-ground station with a 9.5 million gallon per-day capacity. Why: The project is necessary to improve the wastewater system and mitigate overflows due to aging infrastructure and equipment. It will replace Lift Station 7, which will be decommissioned and the site will be restored and landscaped to its park-like setting. The new station will handle about 33 percent of the city’s wastewater flow. Hurricane-proof: The two-story building was designed to withstand the impact of a Category 3 hurricane. The design will allow Sarasota Memorial Hospital and other critical designated storm shelters to remain operational after a storm. City officials directed the project engineer, McKim & Creed, to bring critical equipment above ground to a height above Category 3 storm surge elevation. Custom floor doors: 13 floor doors from BILCO were installed in the project, and include factory-installed fall protection grating. The doors were customized to meet unique size requirements. Did you know? Sarasota has been impacted, directly or indirectly, 36 times in the last 146 years by hurricanes. The city is brushed or hit by hurricanes every 2.16 years.
Learning from the lack of communication from the Lift Station 7 is - sues, city officials kept residents informed of project updates with a website dedicated to the project that included frequently asked ques - tions, meeting notes, and important documents. Citizens could choose to receive email notifications about project updates. Getting There No one could dispute the fact that a new lift station was sorely needed and long overdue, and all agreed that the project would tremendously improve the city’s quality of life. The path to get there, however, was nothing less than torturous. Residents grew weary of the project timeline and frustrated by ongoing construction and budget overages, and while the project is now complete, no one in Sarasota is taking a celebratory victory lap. The spill in February 2005 proved to be the final straw for city resi - dents, who were not told of the 2004 spill until the 2005 event. In August of 2005, six employees of the public works department were demoted, reprimanded, or forced to retire, and by 2007, City Manager Michael McNess resigned, in large part due to the mishandling of the lift station. With the project behind them, city officials are looking back to under - stand why the project went so long and over-budget. “I think we need to own up to it and explain to the community what happened so that we and future commissioners don’t have the same problem or learn from those mistakes,’’ Commissioner Hagen Brody told the Herald-Tribune last September. In 2008, the city approved the relocation of Lift Station 7 from Pomelo Avenue to Luke Wood Park. After the two major sewage spills, the state Department of Environmental Protection imposed a 2011 dead - line for the city to move the station from Pomelo Avenue, which is about a half-mile from the park. Despite some public opposition, the Luke Wood Park option was thought to be the most cost-effective and time-efficient solution. 13 floor doors manufactured by BILCO were included in a new lift station in Sarasota, Fla.
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June 2021
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