BRU nears irrigation line completion

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Lakewood Ranch irrigation provider Braden River Utilities is nearing completion on a project to bring reclaimed water to Lakewood Ranch from the city of Bradenton.

Contractors now have focused on work east of Interstate 75. As part of the project, Palmbrush Trail, at its intersection with State Road 70, will be closed through Feb. 10.

“Full access to the businesses will be maintained off Palm Brush Trail from Lakewood Ranch Boulevard,” said Scott Pryor, project coordinator for contractor E.T. MacKenzie of Florida. “Traffic will just not be able to exit or enter directly from State Road 70. The reason is to accommodate equipment and materials required to bore under State Road 70 for part of the BRU reclaimed water interconnect.”

BRU’s $11 million reclaimed water interconnection project creates 11 miles of transmission pipes roughly from the River Run Waste Water Treatment Plant, near Pirate Stadium and Mixon Fruit Farms in Bradenton, south to State Road 70 and east to about Pope Road, in Lakewood Ranch.

Manatee County deeded a section of existing pipe, which runs between 45th Street East and just west of Caruso Road, to BRU as part of the project.

The first of five phases of the project — the construction of a pump station at the water treatment facility near Bradenton’s municipal golf course — is about 90% complete. All of the pipeline west of Interstate 75 (phase II) has been installed, said Jim McLellan, engineering section manager for the city of Bradenton.

The remaining phases of the pipeline bring the transmission line along S.R. 70 from the Braden River to Pope Road and include the installation of a connect line for BRU from Lakewood Ranch Boulevard to Lorraine Road.

The main transmission line will bring reclaimed water to SMR’s property roughly from Lakewood Ranch Boulevard east to Lorraine Road and north to State Road 64. The transition line will connect the new line with existing infrastructure used for irrigating developed residential areas north of the Braden River, including the Summerfield and Greenbrook communities.

McLellan said contractors are on schedule and pipeline completion is expected by the end of March.

“They are on schedule,” McLellan said. “They’ve had pretty good luck with the contracts and construction.”

Once the pipeline is finished, testing will commence. The city of Bradenton expects to begin water delivery by May.

“It takes a little bit of time to test it and make sure (the line) doesn’t leak,” McLellan said. “The vast majority of the pipeline has been done by the directional-drill process, which means all the pipe is fused together before it’s put into place. There aren’t many joints that could leak.”

McLellan said the project benefits both BRU and the city and was awarded Project of the Year Jan. 16 by the Suncoast Branch of the American Civil Engineers.

“We don’t have a developed urban reclaimed system for us to distribute to folks within downtown,” McLellan said. “We don’t have the pipe network to do that; it would be cost prohibitive to construct that.
“But, we have excess water,” he said. “This project is going to allow us to significantly reduce, if not totally eliminate, our discharge to the (Manatee River) and allow the water we have to be beneficially used by the people of Lakewood Ranch.”

McLellan said reclaimed water is a clean, viable water source that, up to this point, has not been fully utilized.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is encouraging the use of reclaimed water, which is better for irrigation than well water.

The new pipeline will deliver about 6 million gallons of water to Lakewood Ranch each day. Lakewood Ranch currently uses well water and reclaimed water supplied by the city of Sarasota to meet irrigation needs.

By the numbers
5 — Number of phases for the project

16 — Day in January on which the Suncoast Branch of the American Civil Engineers named the project Project of the Year.

90 — Percent completed for a new pump station associated with the project.

6 million — In gallons, approximate amount of water to be supplied by the city of Bradenton to Lakewood Ranch daily.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].