Projects
San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility
Jacobs provided design-build services for two award-winning upgrades to the largest advanced wastewater treatment facility in the western U.S.
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Since 2014, the City of San José in California has been undertaking the largest public works program in its history: a $2.2 billion 30-year capital improvement program to upgrade aging systems at the San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF).
The San José-Santa Clara RWF is one of the largest advanced wastewater treatment facilities in the western U.S. and serves the Silicon Valley area, supporting over 1.4 million people and 17,000 businesses.
In support of these modernizations to the RWF, Jacobs was contracted to provide design-build services for two major projects: a new cogeneration facility that maximizes on-site renewable energy generation and a new headworks facility to enhance wet-weather and pre-treatment capabilities.
“One of the best aspects of the new headworks project was the collaboration between our staff and our design-builder Jacobs. During the two years of construction, we saw no disruption to our operations at any time and right now this is the crown jewel of our capital improvement program.”
Headworks
To better prepare the RWF for wet-weather conditions and population growth, the City undertook a $129 million headworks upgrade to expand pretreatment capacity. The project replaced the original 50-year-old headworks facility and modified the secondary headworks to improve operational reliability and performance.
The new headworks facility uses a unique process sequence of pumping before grit removal, increasing the removal of grit from the collection system before large storms and reducing the energy required for pumping as part of the pre-treatment operations. In addition, the innovative design included some of the industry’s largest vertical turbine solids handling pumps within a water resource recovery facility.
The new headworks facility was delivered by Jacobs under a progressive design-build contract and completed on-time and on-budget. Over 86,000 labor hours were worked without a days away/restricted time or recordable safety incident.
In 2024, the headworks facility was recognized by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) with a National Award of Excellence and a National Award of Merit in the Water/Wastewater Category. Other awards include the Construction Management Association of America’s 2024 Project Achievement Award. The project also previously won a Special Recognition Award for Advancing Sustainable Water in Bentley’s 2020 Year in Infrastructure Awards.
Cogeneration
The $95 million cogeneration facility project provides more reliable and sustainable on-site power and heat for the RWF, replacing aging equipment that was increasingly subject to breakdowns.
The state-of the-art project – one of the largest cogeneration facilities in the U.S. – consists of a heat recovery system, gas treatment system, and four engine generators that blend natural gas and biogas to power the entire RWF. The biogas is a by-product of the wastewater treatment process, naturally produced by microorganisms used in the anaerobic digesters to break down wastewater sludge. By maximizing the use of biogas with the new 14-MW cogeneration facility, over 50% of the RWF’s energy requirement is now self-produced using a renewable source.
The cogeneration facility supports the City’s climate action goals by significantly reducing emissions from the combustion process and providing the flexibility to eliminate the use of natural gas in future.
Completed in 25 months, the project was delivered using a progressive design-build approach, with Jacobs providing integrated design and construction services and collaborating closely with the City to implement design decisions that reduced project costs. Over 260,000 labor hours were worked without a days away/restricted time safety incident.
In 2021, the project was awarded the DBIA National Award of Merit in the Water/Wastewater category.
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1.4 m
People served by San José-Santa Clara RWF
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50 %+
Of the facility’s energy requirement now self-produced using a renewable source
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340000 +
Labor hours worked across both projects without a days away/restricted time safety incident
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1956
Year the San José-Santa Clara RWF first began operating
An inside-look at the Cogeneration Facility at the SJSCWRF, showing engine-generator systems – from left to right, generators, engines, gas blending, with emissions control equipment elevated above.