Innovative Sewer Overflow Solution and Park Enhancement

Project Overview

In response to an overflow and capacity issue in the Blue River Interceptor Sewer, GBA designed a 3-million-gallon open storage basin at South Oak Park in Kansas City, Missouri, to enhance the landscape while improving water quality.

The project was initially envisioned as a sewer relief project. The GBA Water Environment project team quickly realized that this approach would be high-cost and very disruptive to the park and the community. Needing an innovative idea and with the goal of reducing the average 3.2 million gallons of sewer that overflows into the creek, the team decided to construct the basin in a portion of unused land in the park.

The football field-sized storage basin designed by GBA is a clay-lined earthen basin with accompanying gravity sewers, an automated control and gate system and radio signalization for the city’s remote system. Within 24 hours after a storm, the basin gradually releases what is stored back into the sewer system.

Partnering with KC Parks, as well as wanting to bring additional benefits to the community in the project, the team wanted to better the trail system within the park. The 1,330-foot-long Trolley Trail was widened and resurfaced. There was an additional 525 feet of new trail added to connect to the existing Trolley Track Trail, which included the construction of two pedestrian bridges. The team also help removed and properly disposed of more than 51,000 tons of trash from a closed landfill that was beneath the site.

The project was awarded an Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Missouri in its 2022 Engineering Excellence Competition.

To learn more about the Trolley Trail Basin project, visit KC Smart Sewer.