City of Perryville’s First Progressive Design-Build Project

In 2020, the Robinson Construction/HDR design-build team was selected for design, permitting and construction of the City of Perryville wastewater treatment facility improvements project to increase treatment capacity (from 2.5 million gallons per day average to 9 million gallons per day peak), improve water quality and position the City to address future regulations. We worked with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to finalize the operating permit with the negotiated water-quality-based limits. The resulting facility is designed for biological oxygen demand, ammonia and total suspended solids removal. In addition, the configuration of the basins allows for anoxic and anaerobic areas lending to nitrification and phosphorus removal.

The progressive design-build project was awarded in July 2020. In September 2023, the new plant was introduced to the community with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Robinson/HDR team has weathered a pandemic, supply chain upsets, and material and equipment cost escalations — all without significant impact to the City’s schedule or funding limits. This project was the first State Revolving Fund collaborative delivery project following the 2016 Missouri legislation enabling public utilities to use progressive design-build, construction manager at-risk or fixed-price design-build. The City of Perryville was used as guidance for MDNR while the SRF policy was updated in accordance with the new legislation.

Improvements included a new administration building, influent pump station, influent screening, a grit removal system, 3-channel oxidation ditch (expandable to 4-channel), final clarifiers, return activated sludge/waste activated sludge pumping station, effluent disc filters, UV disinfection, and relocation of the plant outfall. Modification to the existing solids handling process included rehabilitation of the existing gravity belt thickener, addition of a solids storage mixing system and replacement/addition of pumps and mixers.