About an hour west of the the growing Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area is a picturesque 17,000-acre oasis called Possum Kingdom Lake. It is home to an assortment of fish and other vegetation, and serves as a primary site for swimming, boating and water skiing.
In addition to being a recreational hub, with an average of more than 550,000 acre-feet of water, the lake will be home to a new distribution system to satisfy the growing need for potable water.
The non-profit Possum Kingdom Water Supply Corporation has been working toward providing potable water service for area residents since 1992. The group is currently in the third phase of a five-phase project to construct a new 1 million gallon-per-day water treatment facility and a 100-mile distribution system. Phase three of the project is expected to be complete by November 2003.
“Our challenge is to provide a safe, dependable water supply at a reasonable cost,” said John Wendele, a representative at the water supply corporation.
The $13.3-million project will be funded by state and federal loans and grants.
Possum Kingdom Lake dates back to the early 1940s, when President Franklin Roosevelt and U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard determined that the future growth and economic prosperity of the area would depend on an adequate water supply. In 1942, federal funding was allocated to dam the Brazos River at Possum Kingdom to form the lake.
The citizens of West Central Texas depend on this water supply as much as anyone else in the state, especially as the population continues to grow. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission estimates that by the year 2050, 38 percent of the state’s population will not have enough water. That’s why it is so important for growing counties like Palo Pinto and others to conserve water and to build the additional, necessary resources.
The Brazos River Authority continues to work with communities in the area to satisfy the growing need for water. In 1929, the authority was the first state agency created to advance and administer water resources. It currently sells 180,000 acre-feet of water, with another 50,000 acre-feet still available for sale under the legislation provided by the state of Texas.
Working together with the Possum Kingdom Water Supply Corporation, Bowles Construction and Hawkeye Underground Inc. were hired to construct the trenches for the new water system.
“We have more than 1650 members that will be connected during phases one through three, and a total of 2000 at the completion of phase five,” Wendele says. “We expect to see significant growth from both new residents and non-members who want to join the organization.”
Bowles Construction, working primarily in North Texas, has been in business for 30 years, providing a multitude of water, sewer, gas and fiber-optic installations in that time. “We’ve installed thousands of miles of water lines,” said Andy Bowles, the company’s vice president.
Hawkeye Construction, also a Texas-based company was founded in 1998. The company focuses on installing fiber optic, gas and water systems, according to Rodney Lehman, vice president: .
As trenches are dug, other portions of the supply system also are undergoing construction.
“The new water facility, distribution system, pump system and storage tanks are being constructed in one fell swoop,” Bowles said.
Bowles and his crew, along with Hawkeye, have been working at the site for approximately one month, and. things have been progressing well. The crew has to deal with an assortment of soil conditions in the working area.
“It’s a challenging project because there is so much rock out here,” Bowles said.
Bowles estimates that approximately 70 percent of the job involves trenching through the tough Texas rock. Soil conditions include clay, limestone, cobblestone, granite and sandstone.
The entire job is projected to take one year to complete, barring any unforeseen problems or conditions that would cause a delay.
“We have one year, and it will take the whole year to finish,” Bowles said. “It’s about 100 miles of pipeline, and there’s about 2000 water service connections on it.”
Bowles and Hawkeye are both using Vermeer V8550 rubber tire trenchers — among others — at the site to dig the new trenches for the water distribution installation. Hawkeye has also relied on a Vermeer V120 rubber tire trencher equipped with a powerful rocksaw, as well as a Vermeer T755 track trencher.
“We relied on the T755 track trencher and our rubber tire trencher to dig the trenches through the tough limestone, which is prevalent in the entire area,” Bowles said. “We depended on the track trencher to get through the hard rock, and thus far, it’s paid off for us. The trenchers are a good fit for this type of work because of the power they offer, and because they can dig in these soil conditions”
“Because of the rock, there’s no way you could dig with an excavator,” Bowles said. “This type of rock has to be sawed. Anywhere from 2-inch to 16-inch pipe is being installed on most parts of the site.We have a bunch of different-sized trenchers working because it will take a couple different sizes to get the job done.”
In other areas, trenches of 4 ft. (1.2 m) are needed, call- ing for larger machines.
In addition to using trenchers, Bowles supplements his trench installation projects with horizontal directional drills (HDD) to bore under some of the roads where traditional trenching methods are impossible.
One of the challenges that presented itself to the crew is the amount of foliage along the small park roads surrounding the lake. Much of the path near the trenching area is covered in heavy brush, as well as cedar and mesquite trees, and these had to be removed before the trenchers could move forward.
Bowles solved this with the purchase of a Vermeer BC1000XL brush chipper to help clear the way. The crew relies heavily on the machine to support the removal efforts.
“It made the most sense to clear the brush and trees ourselves,” Bowles said. “That way, we could clear as we went and not have to wait for it to get done or have someone working too far ahead of us.”
While keeping wildlife and conservation issues in mind, the Possum Kingdom Water Supply Corporation aims to create a water distribution system that will satisfy area needs for years to come. CEG
(Ryan Dick works for Two Rivers Marketing Group in Des Moines, IA)
