BRANDON, Fla. (WFTS) — Tampa Bay Water is building a 26-mile pipeline through South Hillsborough County to meet the region's growing demand for drinking water, with construction underway at multiple locations.
The South Hillsborough Pipeline will carry up to 65 million gallons per day of water to Hillsborough County's southern service area when it is completed in 2028. The project carries a budget of $505.7 million. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has prioritized $145 million in co-funding for the project, and the state has provided an additional $2.9 million in grant funding. Hillsborough County will fund Segment B of the pipeline, estimated at $84 million.
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The pipeline will run from Tampa Bay Water's Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant in Brandon, connect to Hillsborough County's Lithia Water Treatment Plant and end at the county's new connection point at Balm Riverview and Balm roads. The pipeline will be up to 5 feet in diameter and will also provide redundancy between the two treatment plants, improving reliability and water pressure throughout the county's southern service area.
"This project will guarantee that we will have about 65 million gallons per day of new water in the region here in the South Hillsborough County area, which is the fastest growing area in the county," Maribel Medina, planning and projects director with Tampa Bay Water, said.
Tampa Bay Water began planning the project in 2016 and 2017, with a formal decision to begin building infrastructure in 2023. By 2045, the agency projects it will need an additional 20 to 25 million gallons per day of new water to serve the region.
"We are going to need another 20 to 25 million gallons per day of new water by the year 2045, and we continue to plan and track the growth in the region and plan ahead," Medina said.
Population growth in the area is driving that demand. The number of homes in the Boyette area is expected to grow by one-third by 2045. The number in Wimauma is expected to more than double, and the number in the Balm area is expected to nearly triple.
Construction is being carried out by Garney Construction. The project spans 26 miles and includes 17 trenchless tunnel locations, with 4 underway. About 24 of the pipeline's 26 miles will be installed by open-trench construction. Workers are adding open-cut pipe crews, with 4 to 5 expected to work simultaneously alongside the trenchless installations. Typical construction hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with occasional night work. Detours or lane closures will be clearly marked, and flaggers will help direct traffic when necessary.
"It's 26 miles of mostly five-foot diameter pipe that's going to be connecting existing water treatment plants and going to a future drinking water facility for Hillsborough County," Sam Flowers, area manager with Garney Construction, said.
Some portions of the pipeline will be installed underground beneath waterways, including the Alafia River, Fish Hawk Creek and Bell Creek, to minimize environmental impact.
"It's really important to Tampa Bay Water and to Garney to minimize the impacts to environmental features such as the Alafia River and Fish Hawk Creek and Bell Creek," Flowers said.
Construction is not happening across all 26 miles simultaneously. Once work at a given location is complete, crews will move on, and the area will be restored before workers return to make final connections.
"It'll be a moving process," Flowers said. "So once the work at this particular intersection is complete to install the tunnel, then that crew will go away, it'll be restored, and then we'll come back to tie into that tunnel at a later date."
The pipeline is slated to be in service by late 2028, with construction fully complete by summer 2029. It's a timeline Medina said is achievable given the years of planning already behind it.
"It seems really fast, but we remember that we have been planning since 2017 for this project," Medina said.
Not everyone in the area is pleased with the disruption. Phil Larsen, a resident near the Parsons Avenue and Lumsden Road construction zone, said the project has created significant traffic inconvenience for people in his neighborhood.
"It's causing a lot of inconvenience to a lot of people," Larsen said. "People who don't even live in this neighborhood are driving on our street here, and sometimes we have cars backed up almost all the way to our property."
Larsen acknowledged the population growth driving the project but questioned whether the pipeline was the most cost-effective solution.
"If a person was to look at the map of what this pipeline was supposed to be, couldn't they have built a treatment plant in the south side down there for those people?" Larsen said. "It just doesn't really seem to make sense."
Larsen also said communication from Tampa Bay Water about the project has been limited.
"All we received was an email that said, 'We're putting in a pipeline, and this is going to happen,' and they really never did any real communication," Larsen said.
Tampa Bay Water said residents can sign up for construction updates and project information by visiting southhillsboroughpipeline.com, emailing shpinfo@tampabaywater.org or calling (813) 485-6480. Advance notice of construction activity will also be provided through variable message boards, yard signs, door hangers, email alerts and social media posts.
The pipeline route is divided into two segments. Segment A, approved Sept. 19, 2022, exits Tampa Bay Water's Regional Facilities Site, crosses Falkenburg Road at Woodberry Road and heads east and south through Brandon and Riverview before crossing the Alafia River and continuing south through the Boyette area to the Lithia Water Treatment Plant. Segment B, approved Jan. 23, 2023, connects to Segment A near Fish Hawk Boulevard and continues south to Hillsborough County's new connection point at the intersection of Balm and Balm Riverview roads. Segment B will be funded by Hillsborough County but owned and operated by Tampa Bay Water.
Tampa Bay Water provides wholesale water to the public utility systems of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, as well as the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
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