We recently hit a big milestone on the Pump Station 9 Replacement project in downtown Wilmington. After months of deep excavation and shoring work, we finally set the precast wet well structure. Getting this in the ground marked the end of the messiest phase of the job—and the beginning of work that’s a little easier to see above grade.

This new wet well is 30 feet deep and sits 25 feet below sea level, right next to the Cape Fear River. The site is tight and the soil conditions have been tough, so getting to this point took a lot of heavy lifting—literally. We’ve driven piles, braced a deep excavation, and worked around an active, aging pump station that’s still carrying most of downtown Wilmington’s sewer flow.

With the structure set and excavation backfilled, we’re moving onto foundation work for the new pump station building. Because of the poor soils, we’ll be driving timber piles to support that foundation. Then we’ll pour the cast-in-place concrete that forms the base of the new building.

That building will house everything—valve vault, discharge piping, electrical panels, control panels, power distribution, and the generator. In the end, it’s a clean, weather-tight home for all the systems that keep this station running.

The existing pump station up front stays in service until everything is up and running in the new one. So for a little while, both buildings will be sitting side by side—only one doing the work.

More to come as the building starts coming out of the ground.