Smith Mountain Lake water tank completed

Smith Mountain Lake water tank completed

February 24, 2004

2/24/2004

​MONETA – Progress in extending public water to more areas of Bedford County is growing in many ways, but in the Smith Mountain Lake area, it has grown up, literally.

Bedford County Public Service Authority (BCPSA) waterlines have been installed in the Smith Mountain Lake area, extending service from the surface water treatment plant located in the Highpoint subdivision to Hendricks Store Road and south on Moneta Road to Hales Ford Bridge. In order to provide the capacity for the additional service area many upgrades were required for the Highpoint Water Treatment Plant; one such upgrade is an elevated water storage tank that stretches 180 feet into the sky.

Landmark Structures, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded the project December 2002. Construction first began on the base of the tank, which is a reinforced concrete cylinder with 10-inch thick walls, poured in 19 six-foot tall rings. Although probably the most dramatic phase of the project was the erection of the one million gallon capacity steel bowl.

Construction of this particular type of tank required that the steel bowl, that will soon hold one million gallons of potable water, be constructed on the ground around the base of the tank, and later hoisted 140 feet up into the air along the outside of the column to be secured at the top. The hoist occurred in August 2003.

“It took approximately eight hours for a series of hoists to lift the bowl to the top of the column,” said Brian Key, Design and Facility Director for the BCPSA. “It was a delicate process to lift it to the top, taking care not to damage the concrete base as it moved through the center of the steel bowl.”

The water tank is located on Radford Church Road, just past Hickory Cove Road, in Moneta. Additional upgrades to the Highpoint Water Treatment Plant are currently underway to provide the required capacity to fill the tank and new lines with treated water. The BCPSA anticipates putting the new water tank online in 2004, supplying full capacity to the recently completed pipe line work.

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