Archives: Project

Dartmouth College Environmental, Geotechnical Engineering, and Construction Management Experience

Challenge Since 1999, Dartmouth College has called upon GZA to provide a wide range of technical services to the offices of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), Real Estate, and Campus Planning and Facilities. Through this strategic partnership, more than 140 assignments have been successfully executed to date, including environmental, geotechnical engineering, ecological, and construction management … Read more

Byron Weston Mill Dam No. 2 Hydroelectric Project

Challenge GZA was engaged to assess the feasibility of upgrading two existing dams on the East Branch of the Housatonic River for hydroelectric generation. Originally built to provide water and hydromechanical power to paper mills adjacent to the river, the dams no longer generated energy. GZA’s work was integral to the client’s multi-phased approach to … Read more

Confidential Client Supply Chain Sustainability Programs

Challenge Our client’s supply base is a complex network with thousands of global suppliers impacting the environment. On an annual basis, GZA has been asked by our client to engage with several hundred key suppliers on various environmental stewardship issues to better understand how they are addressing climate change, water, waste, and air-related issues. Solution … Read more

New Hampshire Plating Superfund Site Supplemental Remedial Investigations

Challenge Since 2010, GZA has performed investigation and post-remedial action monitoring on behalf of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) at the New Hampshire Plating Company (NHPC) Superfund Site on the bank of the Merrimack River. NHPC had operated an electroplating facility there from 1962-1985 resulting in groundwater contamination that included metals, cyanide, … Read more

411 Waverley Oaks Road Wetland Area Remediation

Challenge This property was historically impacted by releases of large quantities of waste oil.  The waste oil was brought to the site to, ostensibly, heat on-site greenhouses and to be processed and resold.  Remediation of the impacted upland portion of the site has been largely completed under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan.  GZA is finalizing the … Read more

Dam Removal Conceptual Design for Starr Mill Dam

Challenge Starr Mill Pond Dam is a 15-foot-high, 85-foot-long stone masonry dam located on the Coginchaug River in the City of Middletown, Connecticut.  Originally constructed to power an adjacent mill in the early 1800s, the dam is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is now privately owned.  The dam no longer provides … Read more

Industrial Client- Surplus Asset Decommissioning & Demolition Program

Challenge With limited internal resources to plan, manage, and execute an asset decommissioning and demolition program at active manufacturing sites in multiple Mid-Atlantic states, an industrial client requested GZA’s Construction Management (CM) assistance. Working safely without interruption to ongoing operations was paramount. Solution GZA’s construction management professionals exercised a variety of project delivery systems depending … Read more

Water Tank Rehabilitation & Appurtenant Work

Challenge The six-million-gallon capacity Oak Hill tank is critical to meeting peak demands and fire flows in the Attleboro water system. When its original coating systems failed, resulting in corrosion and metal loss, and thermal stratification in the tank threatened water quality, GZA provided concept to start-up engineering services to address these issues and maintain … Read more

Route 1 Reinforcing Water Main

Challenge When the Wrentham water distribution system required improvements to provide fire flow to an area targeted for economic development, GZA was asked to design the installation of 5,500 feet of 12-inch reinforcing main. Timing was critical to support a planned development project and to meet the requirements of the State MassWorks Grant, which funded … Read more

Conventional Oil Well and Facility Decommissioning

Challenge When Shell Oil entered the Appalachian Basin in 2011, it sought comprehensive on-ground support to handle the decommissioning of newly-acquired conventional oil fields in southwest New York and northwest Pennsylvania. Shell retained GZA to determine liability costs and manage the decommissioning and reclamation of their Enterprise field in Limestone, New York. Solution   GZA … Read more

Turnkey Oil Field Facility Decommissioning

Challenge In 2015, oil price volatility severely impacted our Client’s ability to fund projects, leading to cost-saving measures across their portfolio that included employee lay-offs. Nonetheless, they still had decommissioning obligations in the Appalachian Basin, and looked to GZA to help them move the projects forward. Solution GZA proposed a turnkey lump sum approach to … Read more

PSEG Pier and Revetment Evaluations

Challenge The PSEG power generation station site was significantly damaged from the unrelenting pounding, over the course of several days, from Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The oil dock, shore-based infrastructure, and the south facing revetments sustained damage from the 100-year design storm surge and wave action. GZA was retained to perform an assessment of coastal … Read more

Flood Hardening Program, Confidential Utility

Challenge Electric substation facilities are among the most critical elements to our nation’s power infrastructure. Recent flood impacts and forecasts of more frequent severe weather events prompted one long-standing major utility client to request GZA’s assistance in creating a Flood Hardening Program to improve the flood resiliency of 50+ existing inland and coastal facilities in … Read more

GZA Services for Electric Transmission, Distribution, and Substation Facilities

Challenge To meet increasing electric service demands, energy providers plan extensive transmission, distribution and substation projects requiring myriad engineering and environmental services. Solution GZA provides natural resources, environmental permitting and regulatory compliance, geotechnical engineering, and construction monitoring, including: Wetland Delineation and Documentation & Functional Assessments Endangered Species Review and Field Surveys GPS/GIS Mapping of Natural … Read more

Demolition and Clean-up of Fire-Damaged Battery Storage Building

Challenge When a fire severely damaged a 10,800 square-foot Battery Equipment Storage Systems (BESS) building on a Hawaiian wind farm, the demolition and lead release clean-up from the batteries required a skilled team. GZA was retained as Construction Manager for the demolition and clean-up. Solution Within two days of the client’s request, GZA arrived in … Read more

National Grid New England East-West Solutions (NEEWS) Power Reliability Project

Challenge GZA was retained by Power Engineers, Inc., Owner’s Engineer to National Grid, to provide quality control observation and value engineering support for the Rhode Island Reliability Project (RIRP) portion of the $700 million NEEWS project, consisting of over 100 circuit miles of new 115kV and 345 kV above-ground transmission on over 60 miles of … Read more

Vapor Intrusion Testing Services for TCE

Challenge Prompted by a 2012 decrease in the toxicity values for trichloroethene (TCE) exposure that was adopted by the U.S. EPA and the Ohio EPA, GZA was requested to return to a site it had helped a client close more than a decade prior. Ohio EPA now requested sampling at an active industrial warehouse for … Read more

Solar Development at Rose Hill, West Kingstown, and University of Rhode Island (URI) Superfund Landfills

Challenge From permitting to construction completion, this solar development program in partnership with Kearsarge Energy  – design and construction of a solar field atop three previously capped landfills – presented challenges: as the first project of its type in the state, the permitting process was without precedent; protection of the landfill caps was paramount; and as-built … Read more

Hydroelectric Project- Confidential Client

Challenge A turbine extension and modernization program at this Pumped Storage Hydrogeneration Project required complete un-watering of the subsurface water conveyance structures that connect its Lower Reservoir (LR) and Upper Reservoir (UR). Stability of the earthfill embankment components of the project, which are sensitive to water surface elevations and changes in piezometric pressures, added complexity … Read more

Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. Geotechnical Services for Ground-Mount Solar

Challenge Preferred foundation systems for ground-mount solar projects are short driven or screw piles able to resist high lateral loads. The piles are typically designed by a design-build contractor based on multiple site-specific load tests. For bidding projects, designers need to know the soil type and potential for shallow obstructions, such as boulders and bedrock. … Read more

Block Island Wind Farm, Staging Facility

Challenge While staging offshore wind operations for Block Island Wind Farm, the developer was confronted with an aging port facility where the bearing capacity of the facility and condition of the quay was largely unknown. GZA was retained by Deepwater Wind and General Electric to conduct a geotechnical assessment of the facility where proposed staging … Read more