CDM Earns Top Honor in National Design-Build Competition
October 19, 2006
RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO—CDM has won the National Design-Build Best Project Award in the "Water Under $15 Million Category" from the Design-Build Institute of America for two membrane bioreactor water reclamation facilities in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The award recognizes CDM--the design-builder--the city, and two residential development corporations, for the outstanding use of design-build in delivering two unique reclaimed wastewater treatment facilities.
Numerous creative strategies produced considerable capital and life-cycle cost savings and deferred impact fees for the developers, with both plants now turned over to Rio Rancho. Change orders were less than 1 percent of the project costs.
In addition, the project was completed several months earlier than would have been possible under a traditional approach, with one of the facilities finished 3 months ahead of schedule. This allowed timely development to proceed on the two master-planned communities--Mariposa and Cabezon--with a total of nearly 9,000 planned homes to serve the rapidly growing Rio Rancho area.
Both facilities use innovative membrane bioreactor technology to produce high-quality reclaimed water for irrigation, and the ultimate goal is to add further treatment for direct injection of the reclaimed water directly into the city's water supply aquifer, under an indirect potable reuse program. Design flows at Mariposa and Cabezon are 0.5 and 0.6 million gallons per day (mgd), respectively, with the Cabezon plant already earmarked for expansion.
Among the very first membrane bioreactor treatment facilities in New Mexico, the plants' compact footprints minimize capital and operating costs, reduce environmental impacts, and readily accommodate future expansion.