The Montebello Filtration Plant is Baltimore City's largest water treatment facility. A design is underway for a major upgrade to the facility to a design capacity of 318 mgd, which will combine the filtration capacities of the Montebello Plant 1 and the neighboring Plant 2. The improvements will consist of the replacement of existing sand filters, improvements to the chemical feed system, and a complete instrumentation/ controls system upgrade. In addition to design of the new filtration building structure, effluent flow measurement, and fluoride and potassium permanganate feed systems, JMT has been responsible for the design and construction phase services for the interim filter controls improvements to improve the reliability of the existing filters. Our responsibilities for this project included.
JMT completed the design and developed bid documents, and is currently assisting the City with construction phase services for Phase I improvements to the filter flow controls portion of the PCS for all 60 filters at the Montebello facilities, and has been a fast-tracked design/construction project.
Design progressed from Notice to Proceed to 100% design in four months for $2.3 million of flow controls and instrumentation improvements.
Replacement of existing pneumatic and hydraulic control components with new electrical and electronic components. Integration of new controls to the existing PCS to control filter effluent flows and to automatically control valves. Pneumatic switches were replaced by PLC’s with electrical switches as inputs for backwash sequences. Four-way hydraulic valves were replaced with 4-way solenoid valves for remote control of backwash valves. Hydraulic valve actuators on the flow control butterfly valves were replaced with sealed electric valve actuators controlled by the PLC’s. Existing differential pressure transmitters and limit switches were replaced with latest generation instruments and connected to new PLC’s.
JMT’s design focused on development of new modular control assemblies that could be quickly and reliably implemented in the field to maintain an aggressive construction schedule. Filter Control Consoles and Filter Service Panels were cost-effectively rehabilitated in place using the new control assemblies.
