Fort Lauderdale Opens $666M Prospect Lake Water Plant Delivered Through a P3

Fort Lauderdale has opened the Prospect Lake Clean Water Center, a roughly $666 million drinking water investment delivered as a public-private partnership with Kiewit as design-builder. The plant can treat up to 50 million gallons per day, is built to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds, and replaces a treatment plant that dates to the 1950s. The city marked the opening on Thursday, October 15.

What Happened

The City of Fort Lauderdale celebrated the opening of the new facility, which it says will serve as its primary drinking water treatment plant in place of the nearly 70-year-old Fiveash Water Treatment Plant (City of Fort Lauderdale). The city puts the investment at approximately $666 million, including related infrastructure improvements, and says the plant uses nanofiltration and ion exchange treatment to improve clarity and taste and to give the system flexibility as water quality standards and emerging contaminants change (City of Fort Lauderdale).

Mayor Dean Trantalis called the plant "a transformational investment in the future of Fort Lauderdale" (Construction Dive).

How the Project Was Delivered

The plant was delivered through a public-private partnership between the city, IDE Technologies, Ridgewood Infrastructure and Kiewit Water Facilities Florida, with Kiewit selected as design-builder in 2023 (Construction Dive). 22Miami reported that Kiewit's in-house engineers served as engineer of record, that construction began in September 2023, and that a 30-year operations and maintenance period follows construction (22Miami).

The same outlet broke the cost into two parts: a fixed cost of $485 million for the treatment plant and $181 million for city infrastructure enhancements tied to connecting it (22Miami). It reported that the treatment plant is funded 75 percent by the city and 25 percent by Prospect Lake Water, L.P., and that the city's fiscal 2026 budget sets aside $2.9 million for city obligations at the center, including 18 positions (22Miami). The city's own announcement gives the total figure and the partnership structure but does not publish the funding split.

Key Facts

• Capacity: Up to 50 million gallons of treated water per day (City of Fort Lauderdale).
• Source water: Groundwater from the Biscayne Aquifer (22Miami).
• Resilience: Engineered for Category 5 hurricane-force winds. Construction Dive notes the old Fiveash plant, built in 1953, was not designed to meet current wind standards (Construction Dive).
• Service area: Water and sewer service for about 250,000 people in central Broward County (22Miami).
• Old plant: Fiveash will become a storage and distribution center (City of Fort Lauderdale).

Where Things Stand

The plant is open, but the switchover is gradual. The city began moving water from the new facility into the distribution system in September, and the transfer continues as the plant comes fully online (City of Fort Lauderdale). 22Miami reported a city statement that customers may notice temporary differences in taste, color or cloudiness through the end of 2026 (22Miami).

Why It Matters Nationally

Construction Dive placed the opening in the context of the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2025 Infrastructure Report Card, which graded drinking water a C-minus, wastewater a D-plus and stormwater a D (Construction Dive). Fort Lauderdale's case, a plant built in 1953 that was not designed for current wind standards, is the kind of aging asset behind those grades. WCG has tracked that backlog in America's Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Just Got Much Bigger, And the Clock Is Ticking, and closer to our St. Petersburg office in Hillsborough County's $1.2 billion wastewater program.

Implications for Owners, Developers, Contractors and Subs

For public owners, the project is a working example of a large water plant delivered under a design-build-operate style partnership with private capital in the deal and a long operating term. The fixed treatment plant price reported by 22Miami is the kind of cost certainty many municipalities want when they look at alternative delivery for water work.

For contractors and subs, water treatment plants involve specialized scopes: membrane systems, ion exchange, process piping, electrical and controls, and hardened structures. The connection work around a new plant, which here accounted for $181 million by 22Miami's breakdown, can be as large as many standalone projects.

For developers, a reliable water supply in a growing city supports future housing and commercial capacity, though connection fees and phasing will still be set locally.

What to Watch

• Completion of the water system transition, which the city expects to continue through the end of 2026.
• Plans and procurement for converting Fiveash into a storage and distribution center.
• Whether other South Florida utilities adopt similar partnership models for treatment plant replacements.

Bottom Line

Fort Lauderdale has replaced a 1950s treatment plant with a 50 million gallon per day, hurricane-hardened facility through a public-private partnership. For Florida's water market, it is a large completed project and a reference point for how other cities may finance and deliver the next round of plant replacements.

Related Coverage

• Hillsborough County Breaks Ground on a $1.2 Billion Wastewater System, the Largest Public Works Project in Its History
• America's Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Just Got Much Bigger, And the Clock Is Ticking
• Halmar Finishes Yankee Stadium Station in MTA's $965M Accessibility P3

Image credit: City of Fort Lauderdale, via Construction Dive. Image from the source article.

Sources

• City of Fort Lauderdale, "Fort Lauderdale Celebrates Opening of Prospect Lake Clean Water Center": https://www.fortlauderdale.gov/Residents/City-News/Fort-Lauderdale-Celebrates-Opening-of-Prospect-Lake-Clean-Water-Center
• Construction Dive, "Fort Lauderdale opens new $666M water treatment plant": https://www.constructiondive.com/news/fort-lauderdale-opens-new-water-treatment-plant/833476/
• 22Miami, "Fort Lauderdale opens Prospect Lake water center after $666M infrastructure investment": https://www.22miami.com/article/fort-lauderdale-opens-prospect-lake-water-center-666m