City of North Vernon Water Storage Project
GCH International’s role in the conversion of a North Vernon, Indiana stone quarry pit into an upland storage reservoir was a massive piece of an even larger project. Our shop fabricated and assembled the enormous water intake structure.
Composed of three large cylinders that were built in 40-ft long sections, the stainless-steel structure weighed about 88,000 pounds, or 44 tons. The 120-ft. structure supports and houses a set of three submersible pumps as well as instrumentation, valves and screens.
Dave O’Mara Contractor, Inc., the contractor on the project, recently installed the structure in the quarry reservoir. “This project was a big animal with a lot of pieces to try to bring together,” said Clint Black, Estimator/Project Manager. “GCH International had a good handle on the project from the start. They brought some great ideas to the table, stayed on top of the schedule even when we had changes and delivered a quality result.”
The City of North Vernon Water Storage Project is a part of environmental mitigation measures for the protection of the drinking water supply for the water utility. The project includes the construction of new river intakes, pumping, reservoir intake and withdrawal, and piping to connect to the existing water treatment facility. It is anticipated that the reservoir will store up to 300 million gallons of water.