Byrd Park Reservoir

The Byrd Park Reservoir was built in 1876, after the Civil War, as a 50-million-gallon water storage and water treatment facility to provide a higher quality and more reliable water supply to the City of Richmond. The reservoir was converted in the 1940s to a treated water storage facility and was provided with prestressed concrete roofs in the early 1970s that fully enclosed the open-air reservoir to form two 25-million-gallon tanks to further improve water storage security and treated water quality. Past structural inspections, testing and evaluations have concluded that the concrete tank roofs have deteriorated to the point that they are reaching the end of their reliable life. Localized sections of the concrete roofs have already experienced partial structural failures, which have been mitigated, but risks of a larger roof failure have increased over the years. Since about 56% of the City customers receive water by way of the Byrd Park Tanks, a future full or partial roof failure event would have a major impact on the City’s ability to maintain reliable and high-quality water to customers. The existing concrete tank roofs have built up roofing systems, which contain some asbestos roofing materials that further increase project risk levels during roof demolition periods and if a roof failure is experienced prior to tanks being removed from service for roof replacement.  

Greeley and Hansen completed visual inspection of this reservoir along with underwater inspection, corrosion survey, and concrete testing. The team summarized the findings and recommendations in a report to help the client make rehabilitation decisions. The services provided included basic data collection and review, reservoir inspection, underwater inspection, corrosion survey, concrete testing, and a final summary report.  

The project team designed the replacement of the existing concrete tank roof with a new aluminum roof of the same type. The total construction period for the project was approximately three years because of the need to make some water transmission system improvements prior to the start of the tank roof replacements and the need to maintain one of the two tanks in continuous service through the entire construction period. The new aluminum tank roof is a little taller than the existing concrete tank roof to insure adequate roof drainage. Since the tank has 20-foot-high earthen berm around it, the localized visual impacts of the taller tank roof are minimized. The two existing access drives from Boulevard and the existing fencing system around the top of the tank earthen berms are not significantly altered by this project. The use of the two existing access drives for the construction traffic for existing concrete roof demolition and construction of the new roof limited park impacts on park users. 

Project Highlights 

• Inspection and condition assessment of the water storage reservoir 
• Replacement of the eight-acre concrete reservoir roof 
• Continuous service throughout construction