Posted: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 06:55 PM - 14,899 Readers

By: Angrew Horansky

You may have noticed a site that looks a little like an oil rig on Lake Travis. It is a spot that will one day serve as an intake point for the Austin Water Utility.

Not far from the Oasis Restaurant, crews have erected a huge platform with cranes. Beneath the surface, they are building a pipe.

“The intake structure itself fully assembled is going to weigh close to 230 tons,” construction manager Terry Hammerwold said.

The work is part of a plan to finish a new water treatment plant by 2014.

Currently the region’s water comes from two stations, which are both along Lake Austin. Spokesman Jason Hill said they are getting old, and that water is becoming expensive to transport.

“This treatment plant will begin on a small scale and it is designed to be built out,” Hill said.

Officials say it will also one day draw water closer to where it will be needed.

“It is closer to where the water, where the growth of the city is,” said Larry Laws of MWH Construction.

Austin water maintains the new intake point will not have a noticeable effect on Lake Travis levels. That is because water will continue to come from the same source it does now, which is the Colorado River.

The platform is scheduled to be removed next year. The estimated cost of the new water treatment plant is $500 million.