Childs Park Lift Station 87 Project
The City of St. Petersburg Childs Park Lift Station 87 Wet Weather Flow Transfer Project is a testament to the importance of involving key stakeholders early in the design process. It was the City’s first progressive design-build and first Envision Certification project.
Required by the Florida Department of Environment Protection Consent Order No. 16-1280, the project involved designing, permitting and building a new lift station in the Childs Park area and installing a new underground pipeline to connect it to the Pasadena Master Pump Station three miles away. The new lift station needed to be completed in a short timeframe ahead of wet weather to prevent disruptions to the normal function of the City’s wastewater system.
Dialogue Public Relations worked with the project team on several proactive steps to inform and engage stakeholders. The process identified key concerns that were addressed during design and construction. Some concerns were voiced by members of the Childs Park Neighborhood Association who thought the new lift station might negatively impact the community. The project team quelled their fears ahead of construction by hosting a tour of a similar lift station in an upscale neighborhood that demonstrated the purpose, benefit and aesthetic value the new lift station could offer the neighborhood. After the tour, community leaders welcomed the opportunity to beautify the lift station with landscaping and a mural from a local artist that would pay homage to their neighborhood.
Other concerns the team addressed during design and construction were:
- Providing a safe environment for children, as the lift station is across the street from the Childs Park YMCA and two blocks away from Fairmount Park Elementary School,
- Maintaining safe access to the Pinellas Trail, an invaluable outdoor amenity to the community,
- Completing construction and restoring the driveway for Faith Fellowship Church ahead of Easter to accommodate services,
- Paving the dirt alley behind Faith Fellowship Church and several homes to address dirty and difficult driving conditions,
- Ensuring the directional drill entry and exit points avoided local cemetery entrances, and
- Maintaining traffic flow for 1st Avenue South, in which both the Lift Station 87 pipeline and the City’s SunRunner bus rapid transit stations were being constructed simultaneously.
The Childs Park Lift Station 87 Project earned the following awards:
- Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) National Water/Wastewater Award of Merit, 2023
- DBIA Florida Region Small Projects Honor Award, 2023
- Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southeast Region Water/Environment Best Project Award of Merit, 2023
