IIHR was contracted by Jacobs Engineering to first review design recommendations, and then to construct physical models of several intakes (dropshafts) in the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District to support and validate their expected performance. The images and video are from the 1:16 scale model of the very large Forest Park Intake Facility that IIHR constructed. The full-scale facility was designed to handle up to 4420 million gallons/day during peak flow.  The model included the diversion structure in the existing channel, approach channel, dropshaft, and deaeration chamber.  The model was used to optimize the design and confirm that the vortex dropshaft intake will perform as expected at various potential flows.

We were selected for this project based on IIHR’s expertise in evaluation and physical modeling of stormwater conveyance structures, especially dropshafts.