KC Water Smart Sewer – Outfall 054

As the city of Kansas City, Missouri, works toward reducing the volume of wet weather sewer overflows into local creeks and rivers, the Smart Sewer program prioritized the process of rehabilitating the city’s outfall sewers — those sewers that receive wastewater from a collection system or treatment plant and transport it to a final discharge point. The goal of the city’s outfall project is to reduce the amount of stormwater flowing into treatment facilities and reduce the risk of flooding.

Outfall 054, located on the east side of downtown, is part of a combined sewer system – one pipe carrying both wastewater and stormwater – that dates back to 1857. To separate the outfall into two distinct systems, the city once again turned to Havens Construction.

After completing the designs in December 2021, the Havens crew worked closely with the city and outside engineers to begin work on the $8 million project. The goal was to reduce utility operations and maintenance costs, extend the useful life of the existing sanitary system by fixing the broken pipes, and reducing inflow and infiltration.

The city also worked with Havens to identify opportunities to implement green infrastructure, which is a system of stormwater management solutions that uses plants, permeable surfaces and various soil systems to manage runoff in a more natural way, by capturing and using rainwater where it naturally falls. This allows the stormwater to percolate into the ground through green storage ponds and underground detention basins.

“It’s simply treating rainwater the way nature intended,” said Andy Shively, deputy director of KC Water. “We’ll pipe it over to a detention basin and let nature do its work.”

The initiative was designed to reduce flooding and decrease the amount of rainwater that gets into the combined sewer system, which, in turn, improves the water quality of local waterways by reducing litter and pollution.

Construction began in June 2023 and included more than 3,000 feet of new storm sewer lines and inlets to separate the sanitary and storm sewer systems. The Havens team built underground stormwater storage and implemented other green infrastructure to reduce runoff and improve water quality. The team also rehabilitated the existing sewer pipes and manholes that were part of the sanitary sewer system.

A community event was held on June 26, 2025, to celebrate the completed project and help the public better understand the importance of the Outfall 054 work and how green infrastructure impacts the neighborhood.

Work also included:

• 27 new storm structures
• 2 underground stormwater detention basins (combined volume of 46,117 CF of stormwater)
• Rerouting of 1,000 LF of water mains and 220 LF of water service lines
• Pipe bursting 1,700 LF of old sanitary sewer
• Rehabilitation of 7,200 LF of sanitary sewer using CIPP lining
• Repair of 300 VF of manholes with cementitious lining
• 4,500 SF sidewalk