Since the completion of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Water Treatment Plant (WTP) design-build project, the facility has been recognized with three regional awards. The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) New England Region issued the project its 2020 Design-Build Project Silver Award under the Infrastructure Category. Earlier this year, the American Council of Engineering Companies of New Hampshire (ACEC-NH) announced the project received its 2021 Engineering Excellence Silver Award. In a virtual celebration held Thursday, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC-MA) recognized the project as its 2021 Engineering Excellence Bronze Award recipient.
The state-of-the-art, 26,000-square-foot WTP is equipped to reliably treat three varying sources of water, with the capacity to deliver up to two million gallons of drinking water per day to the campus and town of Durham. An innovative residuals management system recycles 100 percent of the WTP’s liquid process waste, which increases efficiency and yields zero liquid discharge to the sensitive environment nearby.
While student facility tours were suspended due to COVID-19, our engineers partnered with our marketing team to produce a 13-minute narrated educational video featuring a recent UNH alumnus, providing a walk-through tour of the entire process from the three sources of supply to the treatment process, laboratory, control room, and residuals management systems. The video has been incorporated in the university’s engineering program curriculum since the fall of 2020. This project was a collaborative effort, with special thanks to UNH staff, the state’s regulatory community, our construction partner Waterline Industries, and our Massachusetts-based design team for making this such an exceptional project.
