The City of Tampa’s San Carlos Pumping Station handles one-quarter of the city’s wastewater, and at 40 years old, many of its components were nearing the end of their useful lives. Located at the corner of San Carlos Street and South Manhattan Avenue, this pump station is in the middle of an urban neighborhood and in proximity to one private and two public schools. Renovating this facility ensured continued reliable operations and improved efficiency.

Dialogue was brought on board as a public engagement subconsultant to Garney Construction for both design and construction phases of this project. Dialogue developed a strategic communications plan that included creating a project website, information line and email to keep residents updated on the project from design through the entirety of construction.

During the design phase, Dialogue held two public meetings — one in September 2018 and one in September 2019 — to gain feedback from residents. The Garney team used this feedback to adjust design elements of the project, including upgrading landscaping and the architecture of the building to complement the surrounding neighborhood, moving the entrance to the side of the building to lessen traffic on neighborhood streets and enhancing odor control.

Construction began in November 2019 and was completed in June 2021, during which San Carlos Pumping Station remained in operation. During construction, Dialogue notified residents and area schools of upcoming impacts with door hangers and website alerts and maintained two-way communication between residents and the project team throughout.

The western half of San Jose Park, which had been cordoned off for equipment storage, was fully restored, and roads surrounding the pump station were repaved and striped prior to the City’s official ribbon cutting ceremony in July 2021.

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