Slayden served as the CM/GC for the City of Salem’s $92 million Headworks and Pumping Plant Improvements at the Willow Lake Water Pollution Control Facility. As a fast track project, our team delivered new headworks facilities, a major influent and primary pump station, a bar screen building, two electrical structures, two primary clarifiers, an effluent analyzer building, and an effluent diversion structure.

A key part of the work involved constructing a 120  by 220 foot excavation reaching 50 feet deep, supported by a Z sheet shoring system with double tiebacks. Ten high capacity dewatering wells, each moving between 10 and 15 million gallons per day, kept the site dry, with flows directed to a settling basin before being discharged to the Willamette River.

The project also required the excavation of more than 100,000 cubic yards of soil and the placement of over 20,700 cubic yards of complex concrete across multiple structures. Slayden installed a $13 million mechanical piping and equipment package that included thirteen Flygt submersible pumps, seven featuring 20 inch discharges and 133 horsepower motors. Additional components included three 65 foot bar screens, conveyors, washer compactors, two primary clarifiers, 35 slide gates, and more than 30 pumps ranging from 2 to 20 inches.

Upgrades also involved 300 feet of new 96 inch influent piping installed 30 feet below grade, along with more than 1.5 miles of additional plant piping ranging from 4 to 60 inches. Slayden managed all electrical, instrumentation, and controls work, as well as facility startup. Close partnership with the plant’s operations team ensured the project was completed on time and without interrupting service maintaining the reliability the Salem community counts on every day.