CLIENT OBJECTIVE

The City of Holland in conjunction with their Board of Public Works has made a significant investment in their community through infrastructure improvements including deciding to replace their antiquated coal fire power plant with a new state-of-the-art natural gas fired power plant. One of the by-products of the electrical generation process is excess heat that the City intends to capture and utilize to supply their existing and future planned snow melt system and district heating for the downtown area. As a result, two major projects designed by Paradigm Design incorporated improvements that facilitate the new power plant as well as solve other infrastructure related problems. The overall objective of the Central Avenue project was to solve a problem with flooding within the central part of the City. The overall objective of 8th Street was to construct the connection between the existing snow melt system and the power plant as well as to provide for future expansion of the system in accordance with the City’s snow melt and district heating master plan.

PD SOLUTION

While both projects had different objectives, the Paradigm team used creative problem solving strategies to design and construct the required utilities and infrastructure through a congested downtown area and overcome challenges presented by potential conflicts with existing utilities, railroad crossings and traffic maintenance. Paradigm Design was responsible for the design, bid, and construction of multiple phases of both projects. Between the two projects, the following infrastructure was constructed: 2.5 miles of new roadway; 14,000 feet of new storm sewer lines including 4,800 feet ranging in size between 54 and 66 inches; 3,400 feet of 36” snow melt mains; 3,850 feet of sanitary sewer; and 10,000 feet of watermain. The project also included 500 feet of snow melted roadway and 9,500 feet of snow melted sidewalks.