Bois d’Arc Lake Program Marks More Milestones
The Bois d’Arc Lake Water Supply Program continues to receive recognition from the engineering industry. The American Council of Engineering Companies presented Freese and Nichols and the North Texas Municipal Water District with an Engineering Excellence Honor Award on May 15 in Washington, D.C.
And the Construction Management Association of America’s North Texas Chapter on May 16 named the program both the 2024 Project of the Year and winner of the Project Achievement Award for Water/Wastewater Projects Over $50 Million.
The American Public Works Association chose the program as co-winner of 2024 Public Works Project of the Year in the category of Structures more than $75 million. The award is scheduled for presentation in September. Also in September, the program will receive the 2024 Texas Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers Texas Section.
Thanks to hefty spring rains, the lake opened to the public for recreation in April. The system went into service in 2023, supplying water for 2 million North Texans in more than 71 cities ahead of one of the hottest and driest summers on record.
The $1.6 billion Bois d’Arc Lake Program centers on Texas’ first major reservoir in three decades. It can provide up to 70 million gallons a day of drinking water, with future expansions planned. The program’s multiple components include more than 17,000 acres of ecological improvements that mesh environmental resilience with infrastructure progress.
Hundreds of Freese and Nichols employees across multiple disciplines have contributed to the program across more than two decades of planning, permitting, design and construction. Our staff designed key facilities, including the 2-mile-long, 90-foot-tall embankment and adjacent intake tower, raw water pump station, service spillway and labyrinth weir; the high service pump station and terminal storage reservoir at the new Leonard Water Treatment Plant; and part of the raw water pipeline.
Our team also handled program and construction management and inspection for the overall program, coordinating multiple partners four construction manager at risk packages and a full-service provide contract. All major components of the program were built simultaneously in 2018-2023.
