We’re in downtown Wilmington working with Cape Fear Public Utility Authority on a full replacement of Pump Station 9, one of the older stations in their system—pushing almost 60 years. It’s right on the Cape Fear River and handles a big chunk of downtown’s sewer flow, so taking it offline isn’t an option.

We’re building the new station directly behind the existing one on a tight site with little room to spare. Once the new station is fully online, we’ll demo the old pump station up front and finish out the job.

We just got started. Right now we’re excavating and shoring for a 30-foot-deep wet well, which is actually 25’ below sea level. That means driving sheets, bracing the pit, and dropping timber piles into some pretty unforgiving river-bottom soil. Once that’s done, we’ll set the wet well, backfill, and start bringing the new station out of the ground.

If you’re in downtown Wilmington, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the crane driving piles. After that, you’ll see concrete going in and the station starting to take shape above grade.