Projects

Childress Engineers provided civil engineering services for construction of a new CISD High School and renovation of existing school facilities. The design work included grading, drainage, paving, water distribution and sanitary sewer for the 74-acre campus. Site features included new synthetic turf baseball, softball and practice football fields. The existing stormwater detention pond was modified to mitigate the increased stormwater runoff from the site improvements. In addition to design services, Childress provide coordination for surveying, subsurface investigation and with franchise utilities.

For a large project, the design schedule was greatly compressed.  Childress received authorization to proceed in February of 2017 and issued final plans in June of that year.

This project for the City of Cleburne consisted of a 4 mile long water transmission loop along the east side of Lake Pat Cleburne that is able to convey additional supply from the water treatment plant to Plant 14 for use in the upper pressure plane. The project consisted of 16,400 lf of 24” and 4,700 lf of 20” pipe along with gate valves, blow off and air relief valves as well as stub outs for future intermediate delivery points. Easements were obtained on approximately 10 parcels of land with no condemnations.

Childress Engineers designed the approximately 29,000 lf of 24", 12" and 8" diameter gravity sanitary sewer mains that serve the northern section of Cleburne along Highway 174 North, abutting the City of Joshua. This project allowed the City of Cleburne to remove an existing lift station and provided service to many existing customers as well as future development. Childress Engineers provided planning and design, facilitated right of way acquisition (28 parcels), prepared a right-of-way encroachment license with Oncor, obtained TxDOT crossing permits and provided construction administration services for the project.

In order to provide additional supply and pressure to an area of high elevation in the Sardis – Lone Elm WSC system, the Corporation hired Childress Engineers to design Water Plant No. 7. The plant is located northeast of Midlothian and consists of a 2,500 feet deep, 600 gpm, 10" x 6 5/8" diameter Trinity Sands well, a 880 feet deep, 30 gpm straight 6” diameter Woodbine well, a 500,000 gallon prestressed ground storage tank, a variable speed 2.2 MGD pump station and a 500,000 gallon elevated storage tank. The Woodbine well not only provides additional supply, but it also helps to cool the warm Trinity water, which improves customer relations. The plant provides constant pressure to the upper pressure plane while providing additional supply capacity to the main pressure plane through a series of pressure reducing valves.

Childress Engineers was tasked with helping the CISD staff choose sites for three elementary schools to replace three existing schools. The selection criteria included: 1. Available land, 2. Adequate road access, 3. Must be within the existing school division lines, 4. Must have public utilities within reasonable distance. Architectural design also began at that time. Construction plans were released in May and June to begin construction in August and allow the project to be completed within a single school year. The projects included on-site utilities, grading, paving storm drainage, and detention ponds.

In conjunction with the construction of the three schools, Childress Engineers designed and coordinated the reconstruction of five (5) roadways totaling 10,700 lf consisting of 40’, 36’ and 32’ B-B HMAC sections with curb and gutter as well as storm drains and culverts, where required.

This stretch of Sparks Dr. was constructed in 2024 and provides access to Chisholm Trail Pkwy, SH 171 and faster access to US 67 to all the existing industrial facilities in the eastern portion of Sparks Dr. and Pipeline Road areas. The project consisted of 2,000 LF (41’ B-B) of 8” concrete pavement with curb and gutter along with a 228 lf free span bridge, drainage structures, and wetlands improvements. This project connected two segments of the roadway that our firm previously designed in 1995 and in 2009.

In a collaborative effort, Childress Engineers, Sardis-Lone Elm W.S.C. and Mt. Peak S.U.D. worked together so that Sardis could provide emergency water for Mt. Peak. Childress designed a 2.0 MGD skid mounted, four pump, variable speed pumping station and 12” lines for both systems so that the pressure from Sardis’ Pump Station 3 could be boosted high enough to serve Mt. Peak. In addition, the improvements provided better fire flow coverage for an upper pressure plane in the Sardis system.

The City of Cleburne and New Era Partners formed a public/private joint venture with the goal of bringing a minor league baseball team and commercial development to Cleburne. Childress Engineers was engaged by the City to design roadways, parking, storm drainage, water, sanitary sewer and street lights for the 75-acre development.  The paving portion of the project included 10,650 square yards of 7-inch concrete roadway with a median section and 34,500 square yards of 6-inch concrete parking lot for the ballpark. Drainage design for the project included 6,200 LF of storm sewer ranging in size from a 7’ x 5’ box culvert to an 18” RCP. Offsite drainage improvements included a 38-acre-foot regional detention pond and 3,400 linear feet of improved earthen channel. The regional pond provides detention storage for the Cleburne Station development and another 513 acres of land within the watershed. The utility design portion of the project included 4,600 linear feet 12” and 1,200 linear feet of 8” water distribution lines, 8,600 linear feet of sanitary sewer lines ranging in size from 15” to 8” and in depths from 6 feet to 22 feet. In addition to the previously described improvements, Childress Engineers also completed the site, paving, grading, drainage and utility design for the ballpark itself. Both projects were designed within 3 months of receiving authorization.

Childress Engineers was retained by Bloomfield Homes to develop the water service plan for their Timberbrook development which will add 5,000 connections and more than double the size of the existing Justin water system. After analyzing Justin’s existing system, Childress developed a new pressure plane to serve areas west of town. A 1-million-gallon composite elevated storage tank, a 1-million-gallon ground storage tank, and a pump station with variable frequency drive split horizontal pumps capable of providing 4.3 million-gallons per day were recommended.  Childress Engineers was responsible for the preliminary design and final design of the EST, GST and pump station as well as submitting and obtained the necessary TCEQ and FAA approvals for construction. 

After considering the project in 2012 & 2014, the City of Cleburne decided to move forward with the West Reuse Pipeline in 2019. Rather than discharging the wastewater plant effluent to run downstream and be lost, the goal of the project was to divert up to 6 MGD of it into Lake Pat Cleburne as part of an indirect reuse project. Childress Engineers conducted route evaluations, coordinated surveying and designed 22,800 LF of 20” line and an outlet structure into the lake.

Childress Engineers worked with TxDOT, the Rockett SUD staff and other consultants to plan the relocations of 4” through 24” water mains along a 10 miles stretch of FM 664 starting from downtown Red Oak at IH-35E and ending at IH-45 south of Ferris, Texas. Engineering services provided included preliminary design and cost estimates, route study and easement preparation, coordination and management of surveying, geotechnical, subsurface utility, final design and development of construction plans, bidding, and construction management. The majority of the mains to be relocated were distribution mains that were upgraded to larger mains to accommodate the rapid population growth in Ellis County. The project was constructed in four (4) phases at TxDOT’s direction. The job is partially reimbursed by TxDOT with the balance of the job paid for by the Rockett SUD.

The City of Cleburne approached Childress Engineers (CE) with an issue maintaining good chlorine residuals within the distribution system. After a thorough discussion of the situation, CE determined that the water quality issues were the result of water not properly cycling in the elevated storage tanks. However, the relative elevations between the overflows of the two elevated tanks and higher elevation areas served by them would not allow the City to drop the levels in the tanks without adversely affecting the system pressures. The cost to raise the tanks was prohibitive, so CE proposed to modify the pressure planes in the distribution system and use two elevated tanks in the upper pressure plane north of town to serve all of the areas above a particular elevation. By removing higher elevation areas from the lower pressure plane, the water in elevated tanks could be dropped enough to keep all of the water fresh when the tanks refilled. Many additional lines and connections were required to move sections of town to the upper pressure plane. CE prepared the plans and specifications for approximately 17,800 linear feet of 16”, 12”, 8” and 6” diameter water transmission and distribution pipelines. Easements were obtained on approximately 20 parcels of land with no condemnations. Due to the timing of the construction being close to a proposed pavement rehabilitation project, CE modified the location of some lines, eliminating the need for several bores and areas of pavement repair through change orders, which resulted in a 10% reduction of the contract price.

The City of Corsicana approached Childress Engineers with a request to upgrade the Navarro Mills Water Treatment Plant. The job consisted of replacing an aging backwash elevated tank with vertical turbine backwash pumps and VFDs. Aging pumps were also replaced with new 700 horsepower horizontal centrifugal pumps in their high-service pump station. Addition upgrades included swapping out aging equipment and filter media in the plant mixed-media filters, installing some new yard piping and filter gallery piping with new flowmeters, and retrofitting some older electrical equipment with new state of the art electrical equipment and SCADA controls. Engineering services provided by Childress Engineers included preliminary design and cost estimates, coordination and management of surveying, geotechnical, electrical contracts, final design and development of construction plans, bidding, and construction management.