Little Rock, AR | June 24, 2025 — Central Arkansas Water has officially kicked off a $230 million renovation of the Jack H. Wilson Water Treatment Plant in Little Rock, marking the first major upgrade in the facility’s nearly 70-year history.

Construction on Arkansas’ largest water treatment plant began about a month ago, according to Central Arkansas Water spokesperson Douglas Shackelford. The goal of the multi-phase overhaul is to increase capacity, modernize systems, and address decades of deferred maintenance.

“The project aims to bolster the region’s drinking water supply for the coming decades by improving the plant’s efficiency, addressing deferred maintenance and equipping it with modern water treatment techniques,” Shackelford told Construction Dive.

The treatment plant, which currently processes up to 133 million gallons per day, will see its capacity boosted to 150 million gallons per day. This is largely due to the integration of updated technologies that will improve water flow rates through the system.

“[New technology is] going to allow us to move the water through it at a faster pace that would allow for the capacity increase,” Shackelford said. That will “help us out in the long run, because obviously, as cities grow and demand goes higher for water, we need to be able to produce it.”

Construction is being managed by Max Foote Construction of Mandeville, Louisiana, under a construction manager-at-risk contract. The project design team includes Hazen and Sawyer, headquartered in New York City, and Hawkins-Weir Engineers of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The Central Arkansas Water board approved the $219.2 million guaranteed maximum price contract for construction in March, and in June authorized a bond issue of up to $230 million to fund the project. Officials expect to finalize the bond transaction in July, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The project will be conducted in phases over approximately five years, with the plant remaining fully operational throughout construction.

“This plant is vital to our system, and so we can’t shut it down. It’s got to be operational while construction is going on,” Shackelford explained. “There are four large water basins in the facility, and we will essentially shut down one and renovate that basin and then keep the other three open and working while one is under construction.”

The Wilson facility sources its water from Lake Maumelle, which is also owned and managed by Central Arkansas Water.

This overhaul represents the utility’s most ambitious infrastructure investment to date and is seen as critical to supporting the region’s growing population and long-term sustainability.

Originally reported by Julie Strupp in Construction Dive.