NAPLES, Italy – The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Europe Africa Central (EURAFCENT) completed a $2.25 million base-wide waterline replacement and water treatment plant upgrade project. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held February 17.
“The benefits of this project include sustainment of water supply infrastructure and improved control measures for safe drinking water for the tenant commands located aboard NSA Naples,” said Lt. Cmdr. Michelle Caponigro, director of the Facilities Engineering and Acquisition Division (FEAD) onboard Public Works Department (PWD) Naples. “I am incredibly proud of the coordination by our combined Public Works, FEAD, Utilities, and Environmental Teams; they worked tirelessly with the contractor and installation emergency services to ensure safe and continuous operations during complex construction.”
The project began in July 2020 and replaced 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) of 30-year old piping that supplied 31 tenants onboard Naval Support Activity Naples Capodichino base.
In addition to the water piping, the project also included upgrades to the existing Water Treatment Plant. These renovations included new water filters, new ultraviolet reactors, and new membranes for the reverse osmosis. These upgrades were necessary improvements to ensure the potable water continues to meet American standards for human consumption.
“In the last five years the base was affected by several large water breaks with a consequent expensive repairs and increase of water and energy consumption (coming from the increased water demand at the treatment plant),” said Luca Guadagnuolo, the Utilities and Energy branch head at PWD Naples. “In addition, many valves on the distribution were not working and not allowing (us) to isolate the areas affected by the leaks. The new distribution has new valves and manholes, and all pipes are made out of high thickness polyethylene.”
Furthermore, the Water Treatment Plant received a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Direct Digital Controls (DDC) for remote monitoring.
“The SCADA system provides automated control of the plant 24/7,” said Guadagnuolo. “The system can run on manual mode, but it would require presence of personnel 24/7, and it would have limited control over critical parameters and processes.”
Numerous water and road outages had to occur over the past year and half, requiring close coordination between construction, utility, emergency service and contractor staff in order to maintain installation operations. At any point during construction, about 15% of the base was affected by partial closures.
With extensive planning by the Public Works Construction Management Team and support from the Water Treatment Plant, the number of outages connected to the buildings were minimized by installing water bypasses and working after hours.
The prime contractor ICM Group is an Italian construction contractor working on the new underground train system in Naples, including the one at the airport close to front gate. The Prime hired qualified subcontractors for the different specialties with a total hiring of almost 50 local nation employees.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) manages the planning, design, construction, contingency engineering, real estate, environmental, and public works support for U.S. Navy shore facilities around the world. NAVFAC provides the Navy's forces with the operating, expeditionary, support and training bases that it needs.
NAVFAC is a global organization with an annual volume of business in excess of $18 billion. As a major Navy Systems Command and a member of the Navy and Marine Corps team, NAVFAC delivers timely and effective facilities engineering solutions worldwide. Additional updates and information about NAVFAC can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/navfacerafcent, and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/navfac.
| Date Taken: | 02.17.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2022 03:02 |
| Story ID: | 416541 |
| Location: | IT |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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