45    PRECAST CONCRETE DESIGN FOR TERTIARY WASTE
TREATMENT PLANT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES TIME
AND PROJECT COST
Michael Solomon, Senior Environmental Engineer
Gary A. Rogers, Manager Architectural & Structural Section
Burlington Industries, Inc.
Greensboro, NC 27420
INTRODUCTION
Burlington Industries, one of the world's largest textile manufacturing corporations, operates over
80 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and the world. One of Burlington's larger
facilities is a plant located in Frosinone, Italy, about 60 miles south of Rome, which produces cotton/
polyester leisure wear and uniform fabrics. The Frosinone textile plant is located in a large industrial
zone, or region, known as a Consorsio. The Consorsio provides water supply needs and wastewater
treatment capacity for all the member industries in the zone.
The Consorsio waste treatment plant is a physical chemical facility less than 10 years old which
presently cannot meet the recently enforced standards for waste treatment. Burlington Industries is by
far the largest water consumer and wastewater discharger in the Consorsio, using more than 50% of
the available water supply. Waste discharge limitations are very stringent as compared to United
States standards. For example, the waste limitations for the Consorsio and therefore the textile plant
in Frosinone, are four times stricter than those for a similar facility in South Carolina. Italian
regulations require that, when a regional facility such as the Consorsio does not meet the waste
discharge standards, then all industry contributing to that regional facility must cease discharge and
therefore stop operating until the facility can meet waste discharge limits.
In January of 1986, Burlington Industries management decided that potential disruption in business
activity caused by potential shutdowns from the Consorsio waste treatment plant could have a
significant impact on their future business opportunities in the Common Market. The corporation
then allocated funds for the design and construction of a complete secondary waste treatment facility
at the Frosinone site which would allow the plant to meet federal standard itself and bypass discharge
to the Consorsio and provide for direct discharge to the Socco River. Figure 1 is a diagram of the
Frosinone process.
PROJECT SCHEDULE
On February 17, 1986, Burlington Industries began a fast track pilot study, design and construction
project to design and build a 3 MGD secondary waste treatment plant for the Frosinone operation.
The fast track schedule allowed for concurrent biological pilot plant studies being conducted at the
same time the preliminary design and construction scheduling were taking place. The schedule (see
Table I) provided for an optimistic schedule of 18 months from the commencing of the pilot plant
study through the beginning of the plant start-up, in order to minimize potential plant shutdowns
from the Consorsio facility.
In early April of 1986, Burlington's Italian consultant, Termokimik, informed Burlington Industries Corporate Engineering that a new precast concrete system had been developed in Europe for
containment structures that could significantly decrease the construction period for the Frosinone
project. After field evaluations of several existing installations and a thorough examination of the
precast fabrication facilities, Burlington chose to incorporate this new technology into the Frosinone
design.
As indicated on the attached construction schedule, the impact of the use of precast construction
was significant. The estimated completion schedule for the structural components of the system was 7
months; however, using the precast system, the entire facility including nine containment structures
and two process control buildings was built in less than 6 weeks.
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