Heritage Pump Station Meets Water Needs in South Grand Prairie
The City of Grand Prairie’s new Heritage Pump Station is playing a key role in meeting the City’s water needs. City officials recently celebrated the grand opening of the $8 million pump station during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“It’s the first step in what we think will be a whole metropolitan area in the southern sector of Grand Prairie,” said Ron Jensen, City of Grand Prairie Mayor.
Located near the intersection of Highway 287 and State Highway 360, it will help supply additional water to the south along Highway 287, where the City is seeing the most growth.
“The southern sector of Grand Prairie is the only area we have to grow,” Ron said. “This will be its own metropolitan area in 20 to 25 years. There will probably be over 50 thousand residents living down here.”
Heritage Pump Station currently serves approximately 623 households and will ultimately serve an area of approximately 26,665 households. The 6 MGD (Million Gallons per Day) pump station is expandable to 12 MGD to meet the City’s future needs. This 6 MGD increase is equivalent to 96 million cups of water per day. Meanwhile, the 2 MG (Million Gallons) ground storage tank is equivalent to three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“But the bigger picture is once we get some infrastructure to connect it further down south, we’ll be able to serve two more huge communities that will need the water,” said Noreen Housewright, Director of Engineering and Utilities, City of Grand Prairie. “We’ll have to put in infrastructure and put in an elevated storage tank. It’s great to know that we thought ahead and we’re getting ready to expand to our south.”
The project is possible, thanks to a partnership with the City of Mansfield.
“The City of College Station appreciates the partnership with the City of Mansfield,” Ron said.” They are supplying us with the water for this project.”
For Freese and Nichols Engineer Mazen Kawasmi, this project hits close to home. Not only was it one of his first projects when he started with the firm, he also happens to be a resident of Grand Prairie.
“From a resident’s standpoint it’s very exciting,” Mazen said. “Because you get to see the growth, you get to see the great things that Grand Prairie is doing. It feels amazing to see something that you’ve worked on over the past twenty years come to fruition. It’s one of the best feelings in the world to know that I was able to help the City develop a concept to serve the future growth of Grand Prairie.”
With Heritage Pump Station and future water infrastructure, Grand Prairie will have all the amenities it needs in its own backyard.
“Both of these developments that are coming in down south, the larger ones I’m talking about, they’re master planned communities,” Noreen said. “They’re going to have their own entertainment sections, restaurants, a lot of businesses, it’s not just going to be rooftop for homes. This is going to be a beautiful sector when it’s complete.”
Freese and Nichols was the Engineer of Record on the pump station and associated waterline and provided project presentation on both. Felix Construction served as the General Contractor.
“Working with the City of Grand Prairie has been amazing,” Mazen said. “I’ve learned a lot over the years through their wisdom, through their experience and doing things the right way. They have a phrase at the City of Grand Prairie, they want to make people ‘raving fans.’ I will tell you as a resident, I’m a raving fan. As a partner in this project, I’m a raving fan. The City of Grand Prairie does the best to provide world class service.”
