$115M Tampa Wastewater Plant Sludge Digester Overhaul Requires 5 Low Voltage Systems

$115 million Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant sludge digester overhaul in Tampa, FL requires five low voltage systems — SCADA, instrumentation, control systems, electrical systems, and automation — creating an estimated $3.5 million low voltage opportunity at the city's largest piece of critical wastewater infrastructure.

Project Overview

The City of Tampa is replacing the original 1950s-era anaerobic digesters at the Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, the city's primary sewage and biosolids treatment facility. According to the Tampa Capital Projects portal, the $115 million Sludge Digestion System Improvements project covers the construction of two (2) 2.4 million gallon gas-holding anaerobic digesters, new digester heating and mixing systems, a new control building, and the installation of all related electrical and control systems.

The work is being delivered through a Design-Build Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) procurement under the broader Howard F. Curren AWTP Master Plan Improvements program. Garney Construction is the Phase I GMP design-build contractor on record, anchoring a multi-package overhaul that the City has confirmed at nearly $200 million already underway with another $80 million queued. Substantial completion of the digester project is targeted for early 2028.

Project	Howard F. Curren AWTP Sludge Digestion System Improvements
Location	Howard F. Curren AWTP, Hooker's Point, Tampa, FL
Total Project Value	$115,000,000 (this scope) — within ~$280M total master plan
Scope	Two 2.4M-gallon gas-holding anaerobic digesters, heating/mixing systems, new control building, electrical + control install
Project Type	Wastewater Utility / Critical Infrastructure (Mega-Project)
Status	Active — substantial completion targeted early 2028
LV Score	7/10
Source	Tampa Capital Projects (City of Tampa)

Key Players

This is a public-sector capital project with publicly disclosed owner, delivery method, and Phase I GMP contractor. Future GMPs (Phase 1 No. 4 and Phase 2 No. 1) are individually procured through City of Tampa Contract Administration.

Role	Company	Details
Owner	City of Tampa Wastewater Department	Public owner. Howard F. Curren AWTP is the city's primary advanced wastewater treatment plant, processing biosolids and effluent for the Tampa metro area.
Phase I GMP Contractor	Garney Construction	National water/wastewater contractor delivering the Phase I Master Plan Improvements under design-build GMP. Subsequent GMPs are individually procured by the city.
Master Plan Funding	City of Tampa Wastewater Capital Improvement Program	Nearly $200 million in active upgrades plus $80 million queued. Funded through wastewater utility rates, bonds, and SRF financing typical for municipal wastewater capital programs.
Adjacent Scope	High Purity Oxygen Generation Facility (separate $31.75M project)	The same plant has a separate active $31.75M HPO Generation System replacement project covering motor control centers, variable frequency drives, and the Sludge Control Building electrical system. Same site, same Wastewater Department, separate GMP.

Low Voltage Systems Breakdown

Wastewater treatment plants are some of the most control-systems-intensive industrial buildings in construction. The five required LV systems on this project map directly to that profile: SCADA, PLC-based control, field instrumentation, electrical control, and process automation. There is virtually no traditional telecom or AV scope here — every dollar goes into industrial controls and operations technology.

System	Category	Scope Description	Complexity
SCADA	Operations Technology	Plant-wide SCADA tie-in to the new digesters, heating/mixing systems, gas holders, and the new control building. Integration with the existing AWTP master SCADA, alarms, historian, and operator HMIs. Single largest LV line item.	Very High
Instrumentation	Process / Field Devices	Level, pressure, flow, temperature, pH, and gas-composition transmitters across two 2.4M-gallon digesters and the heating/mixing/gas-holder systems. Hazardous-area-rated devices for biogas zones (Class I Div 1/2).	Very High
Control Systems	PLC / DCS	PLC-based control panels (Allen-Bradley ControlLogix or equivalent) for digester heating, mixing, gas handling, and biosolids transfer. Redundant CPUs and remote I/O over industrial Ethernet, integrated with the new control building.	Very High
Electrical Systems	Power / Low-Voltage Distribution	Low-voltage power distribution, motor control center (MCC) interfaces, lighting controls, fire alarm panels in the new control building, and emergency power tie-in.	High
Automation	Process / Networking	Industrial Ethernet backbone, fiber rings between control buildings, cybersecurity-hardened network architecture per NIST/AWWA water-sector guidance. Tridium Niagara or equivalent integration where building automation overlaps.	High

Estimated Low Voltage Value

Industry benchmarks for water and wastewater treatment plants place low voltage and operations-technology scope at roughly 2–4% of total construction value, with the bulk of dollars in controls, instrumentation, and SCADA rather than traditional structured cabling or AV. Applied at 3% to the $115 million project, the estimated low voltage / OT contract value lands near $3.5 million.

Total Project Value	$115,000,000
Estimated LV / OT Percentage	3.0% (wastewater utility benchmark)
System Count Multiplier	1.0x (5 systems, controls-weighted)
Estimated LV Contract Value	~$3,500,000

Realistically, SCADA + instrumentation alone likely claim $1.8–2.2M on a digester project of this scale. PLC-based control panels run another $700–900K. Electrical low-voltage and automation networking round out the package. This is not a job for a generalist commercial low voltage shop — the playbook here is a water/wastewater systems integrator with PLC, SCADA, and hazardous-area instrumentation bench. Florida specialty integrators with TDLR / state EE oversight relationships are the natural bidders.

Skills and Certifications Required

Wastewater capital projects are unforgiving on credentialing, prevailing-wage compliance, and operations-technology rigor. Every controls system on this project will require certified design, certified install, factory-witnessed PLC programming, and AWWA/cybersecurity-aware commissioning before the digesters can be put into service.

System	Key Certifications	Critical Skills
SCADA	ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP), manufacturer cert (Wonderware/AVEVA, Ignition, GE Proficy)	HMI design, alarm management, historian integration, AWWA cybersecurity guidance, City of Tampa SCADA standards
Instrumentation	ISA Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST), NICET Industrial Instrumentation, hazardous-area training (Class I Div 1/2)	Loop tuning, gas-zone-rated install, field calibration, biogas safety
Control Systems / PLC	Manufacturer cert (Allen-Bradley ControlLogix, Siemens S7), ISA CAP	PLC programming, redundant CPU architecture, remote I/O on industrial Ethernet, factory acceptance testing
Electrical / Low-Voltage	Florida Low Voltage license (ES contractor), NICET Fire Alarm Level II+	MCC interface design, lighting controls, fire alarm panel install, NFPA 70/72 compliance
Automation Networking	BICSI RCDD, manufacturer cert (Tridium Niagara, Cisco Industrial Ethernet)	Industrial Ethernet design, fiber ring topology, cybersecurity-hardened network architecture, AWWA water-sector guidance

Florida requires an Electrical Contractor (EC) or Electrical Specialty Contractor (ES) license for low voltage work, and a separate state Fire Alarm Contractor (FAS) license for fire alarm scope. Wastewater capital programs typically run prevailing-wage requirements, bonded capacity thresholds, and cybersecurity-hardened controls per AWWA water-sector cybersecurity guidance. Contractors should verify their FL licensing is current and that field technicians can clear City of Tampa security and operations-technology requirements before bidding.

Market Signal

The Howard F. Curren overhaul is the largest single piece of wastewater capital work in the Tampa Bay region this decade. The 1950s-era digesters being replaced have been operating for nearly 75 years — and the pivot from end-of-life biosolids handling to a modern gas-holding anaerobic digester package signals a city investing in the operational core of its wastewater system, not deferring it. The plant's separate $31.75M High Purity Oxygen Generation replacement, the all-seven-pumps Main Pump Station rebuild, and the new Master Plan Phase 2 GMP show this is a multi-year, multi-package program.

For Florida and Tampa Bay water/wastewater LV and controls integrators, the implication is direct: this is one $115M GMP inside an active $280M program. Bidding and executing well on the digester scope — particularly SCADA, PLC, and instrumentation — positions a contractor to be considered for follow-on Phase 2 GMPs and the broader Tampa wastewater capital pipeline. Water/wastewater is a counter-cyclical work segment: rate-funded, mandatory, and politically resilient through commercial construction downturns.

The broader signal: aging municipal water and wastewater infrastructure across Florida and the Sunbelt is hitting end-of-life simultaneously. Plants built in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s are getting comprehensive LV and controls overhauls — and the contractor pool that can execute SCADA, hazardous-area instrumentation, and PLC programming at scale is small. Specialty controls integrators have a generational tailwind.

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