Akron’s Howard Street Storage Basin (CSO Rack 22)

Project 923-16
City of Akron, OH

The City of Akron contracted with The Great Lakes Construction Co. to deliver their Howard Storage Basin (CSO Rack 22) Project as the city’s Construction Manager At-Risk (CMAR). The initial CMAR contract was for pre-construction services starting in August 2016, allowing the CMAR Team (including estimating, project management, operations and safety departments) to collaborate with the City and their design consultant, GPD Group, to facilitate a constructible and cost-effective design. Upon completion of the early sitework design, Great Lakes’ CMAR contract was expanded to include construction services. Great Lakes’ crews mobilized to design and install a temporary sheeted earth retention system with walers and tiebacks, all while the CMAR Team continued to be engaged with the City and their consultant in finalization of the project design.

Located between the Little Cuyahoga River and Cuyahoga Street near downtown Akron, the Project included a concrete storage basin that stores 2.4 million gallons of combined sewage flow for later treatment. The mechanicals included a set of hydraulically-actuated mechanically-raked bar screens, two submersible dewatering pumps, six tipping buckets for flushing the basin bottom, and various flow-control gates, valves and instrumentation. A new 1,100 SF Operations Building on the site supports the storage basin.

Subsequent to release of the 100% design documents, Great Lakes’ CMAR Team was issued direction to proceed with the balance of the construction phase for a project Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP). This was accomplished while ensuring the Project strived to achieve the Owner diversity goals, Akron residency workforce rates, and following the terms of the Project Labor Agreement (PLA). Great Lakes’ Project Team fully embraced the various advantages of the CMAR delivery method – including integral involvement in design phase, positive and transparent relationships with city and engineer, and ability to prioritize and expedite the appropriate submittals, RFI’s, and design requests to facilitate project safety, quality and schedule.

This Project showcases Great Lakes’ ability to manage and execute complicated and challenging construction projects, while highlighting our capacity to deliver projects under a variety of procurement methods uniquely-suited to each project and client.

Federal EPA’s 2017 PISCES Award
Presented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
The City of Akron’s Howard Storage Basin is one of only 28 projects to be recognized in the country, and one of five rated exceptional by the U.S. EPA for excellence and innovation.

READ MORE HERE From the Ohio EPA