In planning the Kings Bluff Pump Station expansion project, McKim & Creed focused on three elements: redundancy, reliability and flexibility. Originally, the project was simply to replace three pumps, but upon closer study the team realized an opportunity to provide ultimate flexibility by salvaging two existing pumps while adding three more to create a five-pump configuration at the station.
The project expanded the 45-mgd pump station by replacing three vertical turbine pumps with state-of-the-art 1600-HP vertical turbine pumps with variable frequency drive electric motors; adding two more pumps, two wet wells and one surge tank; improving the SCADA system; and building a new electrical building and control room for operations. With the addition of a parallel intake pipeline from the Cape Fear River to the station and a future parallel raw water transmission main, the facility will have the capacity to pump more than 96 mgd, which doubles the Authority’s raw water capacity and provides for a more efficient operation both in labor and energy.