Partnering with Houston for the Largest Progressive DB Project

The city of Houston, Texas, in association with four regional water authorities, has expanded its Northeast water purifi­ca­tion plant (NEWPP) from 80 million gallons per day (mgd) to 400 mgd, dramat­i­cally increasing its ability to support steady residential and commercial growth while reducing dependency on groundwater. The Houston Waterworks Team, a joint venture between CDM Smith and Jacobs, successfully delivered this $1.8B project in partnership with the city and the four authorities. The NEWPP project is the largest progressive design-build project of its kind in the United States.

The NEWPP has obtained its final certifications from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), making the 320 mgd plant a fully operational water supply for Houston. With this completed milestone, Houston and its four Regional Water Authority Partners now have an additional 320 mgd of “firm” potable water production capacity available to support the region’s growth and reduce dependency on groundwater. NEWPP is the first major source of potable water supply for Houston to incorporate the advanced oxidation process of ozonation for primary disinfection as well as taste and odor control.

“To help the city nimbly adapt to the variable raw water conditions, the team developed two basic recipes for water treatment, a wet-weather recipe and a dry-weather recipe, which the city can switch between as needed,” says Randy Rogers, CDM Smith senior vice president and the project’s engineering manager. “We've brought to bear innovative treatment strategies like chlorine dioxide, ozonation and biological filtration, which have been proven at other Texas facilities using similar source waters. We've helped the city to deliver much larger production rates for its customers, and even given a broad range of raw water qualities, preserving high-quality finished water.”

Design-Build Collab­o­ra­tion is Driving Success

The project was implemented in phases, with ground­break­ing occurring in January 2018 through progressive design-build delivery. The first phase was success­fully completed in December 2023 and doubled the production capacity of the NEWPP from 80 mgd to 160 mgd. Phase 1 also included the design and construc­tion of the new water facility, as well as start-up, commis­sion­ing and interim operations activities. The construc­tion and commis­sion­ing work continued in Phase 2, completed in 2025. Phase 2 increased the overall facility production capacity from 160 mgd to 400 mgd. 

Achieving the city’s goals for rapid water supply growth with an ambitious schedule will require extensive collab­o­ra­tion between all players involved in the project, which made this project ideal for a progressive design-build approach. “We all worked together to make this effort successful,” said Rogers. “In our Collab­o­ra­tion Center, we brought together members of the Houston Waterworks Team, staff from the city of Houston and their advisors, repre­sen­ta­tives of the regional authorities and their advisors—all together under one roof. Every time we modified or progressed the design, our construc­tors provided input and gave us feedback on the cost and schedule impacts. Our experts constantly traded ideas and found ways to improve the design. Working with each other and with the city, we were able to deliver all the benefits of design-build and make the city’s vision a reality.”

By the Numbers

Given its size, the project entailed notable quantities and firsts, including:

• over 1 million cubic yards of earthwork
• 220,000 cubic yards of structural concrete
• Over 8 million construc­tion work-hours with zero lost-time accidents
• 2,500 created jobs
• the largest instal­la­tion of 40-inch diameter dual purpose centrifuges at any water treatment plant in the United States