The facility is exceeding all water quality requirements and recently received design excellence awards from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and the New Jersey Consulting Engineers Council. The site was prepared by drilling and blasting rock to depths of 40 feet. The project used over 60,000 cubic metres of concrete and 4,500 tons of reinforced steel. The intake structure located on the Raritan River involved the construction of two parallel channels beneath the river to connect the structure to the raw water pump station 750 feet away. Two 60-inch concrete pipes and utility lines were installed in the tunnel.
Water moves through the tunnels from the river by gravity flow.
Three vertical pumps were installed in the pump station where water is pumped a distance of 2,500 feet to the main plant. Eight sets of sets of carbon and sand filters were installed in a 24,000 square foot filter building. A 6.2 million gallon concrete reservoir was constructed for the storage of treated water. Other construction on the site included a wastewater structure, a 1.25 million gallon steel backwash storage tank, a chemical building and a control building containing administrative offices. A series of interconnecting tunnels were built using the cut and cover method, cast in place concrete with a minimum 10-foot clearance.