Microtunneling along the Neches River in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey: The Collier’s Ferry Pump Station

The devastating flooding associated with Hurricane Harvey left the City of Beaumont, Texas (city), without water service for nearly a week. The flood waters inundated the city’s existing raw water pump station and cut off the city’s primary source of raw water. For resiliency, the city elected to design and construct a new pump station, the Collier’s Ferry Pump Station. The city primarily obtains water from an intake upstream of the Neches River saltwater barrier. This required the new pump station to tie into the forebay of the existing pump station. The new pump station had to be constructed on higher ground, while also avoiding wetlands, but the nearest suitable location was located nearly a half mile away. Therefore, a key part of the new pump station was a 48″ diameter gravity pipeline from the existing forebay. Microtunneling was specified for construction of the pipeline through alluvial soils beneath the groundwater table along the Neches River while minimizing surficial construction adjacent to existing wetlands. This paper and presentation will describe a case study for utilizing microtunneling in a unique application to allow the city to provide a more resilient water supply system, while minimizing impacts to wetlands and the need for additional improvements.