Water and Wastewater Engineering

Water and Wastewater Planning

Freese and Nichols has one of the largest groups of professionals dedicated to water and wastewater system modeling and master planning. We’ve completed a wide range of master plans, regulatory assistance services, and asset management implementations. As a result, we can provide a big-picture view of your systems to prioritize your solutions, maximize existing infrastructure, and optimize your budget. Our solutions enable you to implement long-term solutions while being good stewards of financial resources.

Transmission and Utilities

As a leader in water and wastewater systems, Freese and Nichols is the firm of choice for fast-track and complex projects. In recent years, we’ve designed more than 1,400 miles of pipelines in urban, suburban and rural environments, and pump stations with a combined capacity of over 9 billion gallons per day. Our designs account for initial capital cost, total life cycle cost, low operations, and maintenance (O&M) cost, reliability, and resiliency. We customize our designs to meet your specific needs and follow through with construction management, commissioning, and O&M services. We also provide expertise in condition assessment and rehabilitation of existing systems.

Water/Wastewater Treatment and Reuse

Freese and Nichols helps communities plan, design and deliver water purification, wastewater treatment, resource recovery and reuse solutions that protect public health, strengthen infrastructure resiliency and support long-term growth. We serve municipal, state and federal clients across the United States, providing planning, design, and construction phase services, program management, process troubleshooting, and startup and commissioning support for advanced treatment facilities.

Our treatment experience spans projects that collectively provide billions of gallons per day in capacity for our clients. From early planning studies through plant design and implementation, our teams bring practical innovation, regulatory understanding and operator-focused solutions to complex water and wastewater challenges. Our approach emphasizes making the most of existing treatment assets by optimizing performance, uprating infrastructure, extending service life, and planning timely, right-sized expansions that maximize ratepayer value and improve resilience.

Treatment has been central to Freese and Nichols since 1894, and it was one of the original services offered by our founders Major John Hawley, Simon Freese and Marvin Nichols. Today, our nationally recognized specialists continue that legacy with a commitment to technical excellence, quality and outstanding client service.

Explore our water and wastewater treatment services below.

Tunneling and Trenchless

Our tunneling and trenchless solutions enable us to facilitate infrastructure projects where conventional, open cut methods would disrupt constituents’ quality of life, require lengthy permitting reviews, or would be too expensive. From trenchless road or railway crossings for water lines involving horizontal auger boring or horizontal directional drilling to deep gravity tunnels for stormwater and wastewater involving tunneling or microtunneling boring machines, Freese and Nichols tailors this specialized service to meet your needs for projects of all sizes.

• Trenchless crossing concept development and evaluation
• Tunnel route studies and shaft site selection
• System hydraulics evaluation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and surge modeling
• Desktop geotechnical and environmental investigations
• Tunnel or trenchless excavation method evaluation
• Shaft excavation support method evaluation
• Economic evaluation and life cycle cost analysis
• Tunnel lining, casing pipe, and carrier pipe design
• Highway, railroad, and other permitting and regulatory approvals
• Public input support
• Odor control/cleaning facilities
• Geotechnical investigation and interpretation
• Settlement analysis
• Geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring
• Third party design reviews
• Constructability reviews
• Contractor submittal reviews
• Risk management
• Data collection and GIS management