When disasters occur, KAI is prepared at a moment’s notice

KAI was selected by the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) to provide emergency relief services after historic rains and severe flooding at the end of 2015 caused the shutdown of two wastewater treatment plants and damage to a third plant.

The St. Louis region received a range of six to 12 inches of rain over three days starting on December 26. This rainfall impacted area rivers, swelling specifically the Meramec River to record levels at over 44 feet — eclipsing the level reached during the Great Flood of 1993 — damaging MSD’s plants.

Charged with bringing the Grand Glaize Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Fenton Wastewater Treatment Plant back into operation as soon as possible and repairing damage to the Missouri River Wastewater Treatment Plant, KAI’s roles included:

• Design and construction management services associated with pumping out floodwaters from the three treatment locations along with the Grand Glaize maintenance facility, including emergency bypass pumping of flows from the collection system.
• Construct emergency road access to the Missouri River plant.
• Assess the damage to all plants, maintenance facilities and components of the collection system.
• Repair or replacement of assets at the plants and maintenance facilities as necessary to bring all systems back to full functionality.

KAI worked with MSD to quickly identify the primary and secondary treatment process equipment that needed to be refurbished or replaced, as well as develop plans and schedules to get the plants back into operation. These plans included the strategies required for the plants to meet upcoming treatment deadlines. Overall, KAI assisted MSD with repairs and replacements of over $14 million worth of damage. Key points that led to KAI’s success on these projects include:

• Mobilizing a team quickly. Within 48 hours, KAI was able to assemble a 14-person team integrated from four firms.
• Achieving close cooperation and communication from all. KAI was able to track daily time of employees and materials from several entities, including our team.
• Practical planning and strategizing. KAI, through the planning and scheduling process, was able to determine what material and equipment was needed and when, using this to manage the procurement process and contractors to meet the schedules. Staying within a tight timeframe helped meet the goal of minimizing the impact to customers.
• Monitoring MSD’s minority goals. MSD has established strict guidelines for Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) participation, and KAI was also tasked with monitoring each contractor’s participation for compliance.
• Highly focused reviews. KAI’s team reviewed proposals to focus on needs and processes to meet the set schedule.
• Construction inspection. The KAI team provided full-time construction inspection services at all three plants, and at times, on an “around the clock” basis.