Field Scale Wetlands Demonstration Project

Completed in 2002 by Oscar Renda Contracting, the Field Scale Wetlands Demonstration project consisted of constructing a pump station on the Trinity River, a pipeline to Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area, two sedimentation ponds, and four wetland cells totaling 274 acres. The most challenging part of the project was the pump station – a massive sixty-foot-deep concrete structure on the river. To access the structure, a temporary steel bridge was installed to support a 150-ton conventional crane. A cofferdam of steel sheet piling provided protection for excavation to the depth of thirty feet below the normal water elevation. The pump station was a key component because its primary purpose was, and is, to pump water from the Trinity River to wetland cells. It was built to allow future pumping capacity, which will be required for future, full-scale construction of the wetlands.