Lane of Salini Impregilo Group has won a $524-million contract to build the Caloosahatchee (C43) West Basin Storage Reservoir in southern Florida, strengthening its presence in the United States where news orders represented 50% of the Group’s total in 2018, resulting in a 35% increase for a record construction backlog.
Commissioned by the South Florida Water Management District as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the contract is to reduce harmful discharges into the Caloosahatchee Estuary in Hendry County by 2024. It includes the construction of an earth-fill dam with a perimetre of about 16.3 miles (26.2 kilometres) and a separator dam of 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometres) in length. The reservoir will encompass about 10,000 acres (40.5 square kilometres) and store 170,000 acre-feet (209.7 million cubic metres) of water when full. When it rains, the reservoir will capture water run-offs contaminated by residential and agricultural developments in the area. During dry periods, it will maintain a desirable minimum flow of fresh water to the estuary, reducing extreme salinity changes.
Lane is applying their expertise in other projects to protect lakes and rivers in the United States. In Tennessee, it is upgrading a wastewater treatment plant, while in Georgia, it is expanding a water reclamation facility and improving a water resources facility.
Along with Salini Impregilo, Lane is also working on major hydraulic tunnelling projects to help cities better handle combined sewer overflows during rainstorms and reduce the pollution of their rivers and lakes. There is the Three Rivers Protection & Overflow Reduction Tunnel (3RPORT) in Ft. Wayne, Indiana; the Dugway Storage Tunnel in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Anacostia River Tunnel, which along with the Northeast Boundary Tunnel (NEBT) in Washington, D.C., belongs to the city’s major Clean Rivers Project.