A construction contractor pours concrete for what will become the new Highland Reservoir Pump Station
Last year, we continued the important work of upgrading crucial drinking water transmission, storage, and pumping infrastructure within our Water Reliability Plan (WRP). This work, occurring seamlessly across our water system, will renew these large, important pieces of infrastructure for current and future generations of Pittsburgh residents and visitors.
Design work for our capstone WRP project, the replacement of the 44-million-gallon Clearwell, the basin that provides the critical disinfection step of the treatment process, began last year. This project will take the Clearwell offline and completely replace the existing structures, ensuring this singular piece of water treatment infrastructure can serve us for decades to come.
The ambitious Highland Reservoir Pump Station project continued through 2024. One of three pump station improvement projects, the Highland Reservoir Pump Station will provide redundancy and added capacity to the distribution system, meaning fewer service interruptions and an overall increase in water service reliability. We celebrated progress on this project at a media event in September, bringing in local and state leadership for a job site tour.
2024 also saw another major milestone of the WRP, as we began the process of receiving construction bids or a complex phase of projects impacting the water treatment and distribution process. Work for this phase of construction will include the rehabilitation of the Aspinwall Pump Station, construction of a new pump station, and construction of an emergency bypass system for the Clearwell. Construction will begin in 2025 and is anticipated to be completed in 2029. The estimated budget is a $164 million investment in Pittsburgh’s water system. The project is forecasted to generate more than 1,300 jobs and stimulate an economic output of nearly $300 million throughout our region.
Since efforts kicked off in 2020, Pittsburgh Water has invested $117,040,524 in the Water Reliability Plan, with $24,730,994 of that invested in 2024.
