Shawnee Park CSO Basin named 'Infrastructure Gamechanger' by ASCE

Shawnee Park
July 14, 2020

National praise continues to roll in for Louisville MSD’s innovative Shawnee Park Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Basin project. The project, also known as the Southwestern Parkway CSO Basin, was named last week as one of twelve new “Infrastructure Gamechangers” by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

“These latest Infrastructure Gamechangers showcase innovative solutions to complex problems and demonstrate some of the ways civil engineers are thinking creatively to modernize our nation’s infrastructure,” said ASCE President K.N. Gunalan.

The $78 million basin is a 20-million-gallon  “capture and release” storage facility that temporarily holds wastewater and stormwater during wet-weather events for gradual release to the sewer system when treatment capacity is available. 

“Due to its location at Shawnee Park in the Olmsted Park System listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the design team constructed the project under the park’s Great Lawn to keep out of sight from the public and preserve the park’s essence,” an ASCE award description noted.

The project also created new park amenities, including an open-air pavilion, restrooms, restoration of Paul Hornung Field, refurbished basketball courts with electronic scoreboards and bleachers, a newly paved parking area for the spray ground and a resurfaced Loop Road. Funds were also provided to Louisville Metro Parks for additional park amenities.

MSD Chief Engineer David Johnson congratulated Project Engineer Brandon Flaherty and the engineering division. “To be chosen as one of 10 game changers in the nation is truly an honor,” Johnson said. “All that planning, design and working with the neighborhood—especially the parks department—truly paid off.

The Shawnee Park CSO Basin previously won a National Award of Excellence, a National Best Design for Engineering, and a National Award of Merit from the Design-Build Institute of America. It also was named the Slag Cement Association Project of the Year and won the Engineering Excellence Grand Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Kentucky.

For more on MSD’s “Gamechanger,” go to https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/gamechanger-item/kentucky-sewage-project-enhances-community/. See the entire list at https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/solutions/gamechangers.