Pump Stations and Lift Stations

A lift station usually refers to equipment that raises wastewater from a lower elevation into a higher gravity sewer or forcemain. Pump station is the broader term and can include sewage, stormwater, process water, or drinking-water duties. The design basis, fluid, redundancy, controls, and discharge system define the construction scope.

The engineer selects pumps from design flow and total dynamic head, including static lift, pipe friction, fittings, valves, wet-well level, and forcemain condition. Pump and system curves are checked across operating extremes. Harrowgate verifies installed equipment, piping, rotation, measured drawdown, flow, controls, and motor operation against the approved design during commissioning.

Multiple pumps provide firm capacity when one unit is unavailable and allow flow to be matched across changing conditions. Lead and lag duties alternate to balance run time. For two equal sewage pumps, MECP guidance expects capacity with one unit out of service to handle at least the 10-year design peak hourly flow.

The structural engineer checks the empty structure against groundwater uplift and designs the required dead weight, base extension, anti-flotation slab, anchors, or other restraint. Harrowgate builds the specified base, controls groundwater during construction, records founding and concrete work, seals penetrations, and sequences backfill so the structure is not exposed to unintended uplift.

Yes. We establish temporary bypass pumping before isolating the existing station. The bypass plan accounts for peak incoming flow, connection points, standby capacity, power or fuel, alarms, monitoring, and emergency response. It remains active until the new wet well, pumps, forcemain, electrical service, controls, and alarm sequence complete the agreed commissioning tests.

Testing covers structure and pipe leakage where specified, forcemain pressure, pump rotation, valve operation, instrument calibration, point-to-point controls, alarm transmission, lead-lag alternation, drawdown, flow rate, operating levels, cycle time, power failure, standby supply, and recovery. Results are compared with approved pump curves, setpoints, and the control narrative.

Provide civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings, design flows, pump data, system curves, forcemain profile, geotechnical report, groundwater level, control narrative, approval conditions, utility information, bypass requirements, and commissioning specification. Existing-site records, operating trends, access limits, and shutdown windows are essential for retrofit and replacement pricing.