Sundt Breaks Ground on $92M Denton Water Plant Expansion
Sundt Construction has broken ground on a $92 million expansion of the Pecan Creek Water Reclamation Plant in Denton, Texas, Construction Dive reports.
The city of Denton awarded the Tempe, Arizona-based contractor the guaranteed maximum price contract in February. Work includes a new 75-million-gallon-per-day headworks facility, a 30-million-gallon-per-day buildout using membrane bioreactor technology, underground utility upgrades, and site improvements within the existing plant footprint.
Market Impact
Matt Bothun, Sundt’s Texas regional manager for its water and wastewater group, said the firm is using “advanced treatment solutions and strategic phasing” to deliver the upgrades while keeping the existing plant fully operational throughout construction, according to the company’s announcement. The expansion is meant to help Denton’s wastewater capacity keep pace with population growth. The city had roughly 150,000 residents as of the 2020 census, but Denton’s economic development partnership projects the population could exceed 200,000 by 2030.
The Pecan Creek award is the latest in a string of large Texas water contracts over the past year. Ferrovial won $721 million in water work across Austin and Fort Worth last fall. Burns & McDonnell landed an $80 million water reclamation job in San Marcos, and Zachry Construction subsidiary Crescent Constructors picked up an $89 million treatment plant expansion in Lewisville in June.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- GMP delivery on Pecan Creek means Sundt will manage cost risk with a set contract ceiling, so trade subcontractors should expect competitive bid packages for civil, mechanical, and E&I scopes tied to the headworks and membrane bioreactor buildout as those packages release.
- Firms with underground utility and site utility relocation experience should watch for near-term subcontract opportunities, since Sundt’s scope explicitly includes upgrading underground utilities within the existing plant footprint.
- The phased construction approach, needed to keep the current plant operational, likely means staged bid packages rather than a single lump-sum letting, so subs should track Sundt’s Texas water and wastewater group for sequential scope releases rather than expecting one bulk award.
- Membrane bioreactor technology work signals demand for specialized mechanical and process equipment installers; firms with MBR experience should position now given three similar-sized Texas water awards ($80M-$721M) have landed in the past 12 months, pointing to sustained regional demand.
