Mega project masters: Jacobs Singapore

In the south-west corner of Singapore, a massive project is underway that will impact the lives of millions of residents. It is the construction of the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP), which will be the world’s largest membrane bioreactor facility when it begins operations in 2026, capable of treating 650,000 cubic meters of domestic sewage water per day, enough to fill 260 Olympic-sized swimming pools and 150,000 cubic meters of industrial used water.

Water security has long been part of Singapore’s development story and the Tuas WRP is an important part of this. Singapore’s daily water demand is approximately 1.95 million cubic meters (or 440 million gallons) – an amount that’s expected to almost double by 2065.

In response to this and the rising costs of treating and supplying water, Tuas WRP’s energy will be entirely self-sufficient, powered by solar as well as biogas produced and consumed onsite, and will turn up to 85 percent of domestically used water into NEWater, the name for Singapore’s ultra-clean reclaimed water.

In collaboration with

Advertorial – Sanli Environmental

The environmental engineering company provides sustainable water management solutions. The environmental engineering company provides sustainable water management solutions.

Tuas WRP will also be co-located with the National Environment Agency’s (NEA’s) Integrated Waste Management Facility to form Tuas Nexus, Singapore’s first integrated used water and solid waste treatment facility, which is designed to improve energy efficiency, energy generation and resource recovery while maintaining a small footprint in terms of land space.

Landmark projects

Tuas WRP is a one-of-a-kind, complex megaproject overseen by Jacobs, the Singapore branch of one of the world’s leading consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery companies. With approximately US$16 billion in annual revenue and a global talent force of more than 60,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.

Over a nearly 30-year relationship, the company has worked closely with Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), delivering major cross-sector infrastructure projects in water and industrial facilities, including serving as program manager and designer for the award-winning Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) and the Changi WRP, one of the world’s largest water reclamation projects.

Other projects include the iconic NEWater Plant and Visitor Centre, an international landmark for educating the world about water reuse, and the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme, which transformed the waterbodies in Singapore beyond their utilitarian functions, creating new community spaces as well as improved quality living in Singapore.

In the creation of these landmark projects and others like them, Jacobs relies on the expert assistance and technical knowledge of many suppliers, including, but not limited to, Sanli Environmental, Sinohydro and Koh Brothers Eco Engineering.

Managing complexity

Given the scale and complexity of the Tuas WRP project, and the involvement of so many contractors, the Jacobs team knew they would have to coordinate massive amounts of data and facilitate collaboration with and across contractors and Singapore’s PUB.

The team had to integrate and interface six major treatment process facilities with over 2,400 native building information models during design and 16 contractors during construction, with over 3,500 native building information models and 150 federated models.

However, in the early stages of the project, the data-rich models were often too heavy to federate and simulate using ordinary laptop or desktop hardware, and the complex data management and multidiscipline inputs posed compatibility challenges among software applications. Therefore, the process became not only a logistical challenge but also one involving software and hardware.

The solution involved partnering with software providers ProjectWise and Bentley Systems to create the preliminary and detailed design model, present model-based briefs and provide models to tenderers. Rather than traditional 2D drawings, this was a truly federated information model integrating multisource 3D information, such as including photogrammetry, thereby allowing all stakeholders and engineers to visualize, search and extract model data easily.

The Jacobs team also makes use of another piece of software called the Bentley Systems iTwin Platform, which allows them to monitor progress month by month, as the building information models are updated by the contractors. They then check this progress against payment requirements and the project schedule to ensure nothing clashes when it comes to interfacing with other contracts.

According to Bentley Systems, these approaches combined greatly improved the quality of tenders and reduced traditional timelines for multidiscipline design tendering of major contracts by 50 percent, saved 75 percent in model federation time and, perhaps most importantly, reduced over five percent of the forecasted capital expenditure for this megaproject.

Future focused

One of Jacobs’ latest projects will be the development of the new Kranji WRP, for which it will provide engineering design, construction supervision and commissioning for the plant. Expected to be operational by 2035, the new Kranji WRP will provide an initial treatment capacity of 545,530 cubic meters of used water per day and will include the fully integrated NEWater Factory.

The plant will be the final component of the three-node DTSS, designed to meet Singapore’s long-term used water needs alongside Changi WRP in the east and Tuas WRP in the west. And much like the other two WRP, Kranji WRP will also deploy smart automation and controls to achieve operational efficiencies and leverage advanced treatment technologies.

Jacobs has also indicated that Kranji WRP may potentially be co-located with one of NEA’s waste management facilities to harness synergies for long-term operation – although this detail is yet to be confirmed.

Given the diverse ecosystem in the vicinity of the project site, best known for its marshland, the company has announced it will assist with the compliance efforts to develop the plant in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Thanks to its combination of technical capabilities, expertise and the outstanding work of its trusted long-term suppliers, Jacobs is well positioned to continue supporting Singapore’s continued development for decades to come.

In collaboration with

Advertorial – Sanli Environmental

The environmental engineering company provides sustainable water management solutions. The environmental engineering company provides sustainable water management solutions. Read More