1 Million Gallon Elevated Waterspheroid

Twenty years ago our firm built this public utility a similar 1 million gallon elevated Waterspheroid for their system. Pleased with how the tank looked to the public, and how well the coatings we had applied were holding up, they had no problem hiring our firm at a preference when the low bidder’s public offer was found to contain a “fatal defect”. Even though they were going to have to pay more for the tank, they knew they would get their monies worth (and they did).

Once reason that this was a job for an experienced firm such as ours was the fact that the site had it’s issues, particularly that it once had been a landscaping company in the 1950’s using chemicals that we now know are carcinogenic. Thus the first order of business was the excavation, stockpiling, testing, and later disposal of the contaminated soils at a hazardous waste facility. Only then could we get started on the special aggregate stone column type soils improvements this “soft site” needed. A spread footing type foundation was then poured on top of this now higher bearing pressure ground, followed by the mobilization of our steel assembly crew.

One of the unique features of this spheroid was the extensive post weld preparations performed by our team. Knowing that when a tank’s coatings fail, it’s typically wherever the surface was rough (like the welds that hold together the many steel plates making up a tank like this). Thus per the customer’s request our workers spent hundreds of additional hours grinding every weld “flush” such that it met the stringent NACE level “C” designations. As such, when you walk up to this tank today, it is pretty tough to actually see where the plates join each other, making it an attractive addition to the community.

Using nearly 650,000 pounds of carbon steel, with thickness’ ranging from 0.25″ to almost 1.50″ thick, this Waterspheroid now proudly displays the use of the SPFA’s main product in northern NJ.