Houston’s Water Future: What Phase 1 Built and What Phase 2 Represents
Houston is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, and its water infrastructure has to keep pace. Over the past decade, the city and four regional water authorities have invested in a generational upgrade to the water systems that serve millions of residents. Understanding what has already been built, and what comes next, matters for the region.
The Northeast Water Purification Plant Expansion: Project Overview
The Northeast Water Purification Plant (NEWPP) Expansion Project stands as the largest progressive design-build water project of its kind in the United States. The two-phase project expanded the plant’s treatment capacity from 80 million gallons per day to 400 million gallons per day, serving the City of Houston and four regional water authority partners, including the North Harris County, Central Harris County, West Harris County, and North Fort Bend Water Authorities. (Source: Houston Public Works)
The project is directly tied to the region’s long-term sustainability. By shifting the primary water source from groundwater to surface water drawn from Lake Houston, the expansion dramatically reduces the region’s dependency on groundwater and supports continued residential and commercial growth. (Source: CDM Smith)
Phase 1 was completed in December 2023, doubling the plant’s production capacity from 80 million gallons per day to 160 million gallons per day. Phase 2, completed in 2025, brought the overall facility production capacity to 400 million gallons per day. (Source: CDM Smith)
Who Was Hired to Build It
The City of Houston selected the Houston Waterworks Team (HWT) to deliver the project through a competitive procurement process. HWT is a joint venture between CDM Smith and Jacobs, which successfully delivered the $1.8 billion project in partnership with the city and the four regional water authorities. (Source: CDM Smith)
Both firms are headquartered outside of Houston. CDM Smith is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, (Source: CDM Smith / Wikipedia) and Jacobs relocated its global headquarters to Dallas, Texas in 2016. (Source: Jacobs) The project was structured as a single large design-build contract, with both firms functioning as the prime delivery team across all phases of design, construction, commissioning, and operations.
The project included local participation goals, with the Houston Waterworks Team drawing on its knowledge of the Houston construction community to provide local contractors a competitive opportunity to participate through a transparent bid process. (Source: Water Collaborative Delivery Association).
What Comes Next: The East Water Purification Plant
The next major chapter in Houston’s water infrastructure is already taking shape. Houston Public Works is advancing the East Water Purification Plant project, a facility that serves 1.9 million residents and has an estimated cost of between $3 billion and $4.2 billion, with construction anticipated to begin in 2029 and be completed by 2034. (Source: Community Impact) Project No. 1 of the East Water Purification Plant Enhancement carries a budget of $2.2 billion and is being procured through a Construction Manager-at-Risk delivery method, with the scope focused on building a new Plant 4 to expand finished water production by 360 million gallons per day. (Source: Houston Public Works / Beacon)
A Thought Worth Considering
Projects of this scale represent a once-in-a-generation investment in Houston’s public infrastructure. As the City of Houston structures the procurement approach for Phase 2 of the NEWPP expansion project and the East Water Purification Plant, there is real opportunity in considering how contracts are packaged. Structuring work into multiple, defined scopes, rather than a single large contract, opens the door for Houston-based engineering and construction firms to compete directly for significant portions of the project. Local firms bring deep familiarity with Houston’s soil conditions, regulatory environment, permitting processes, and field realities. Keeping more of this work within the local market means investment that circulates through the Houston economy, supports local employment, and builds regional capacity for the infrastructure work that will continue to follow.
Houston has the engineering talent and the contractor base to deliver this work. The question is whether the procurement structure creates the opportunity for them to do so.
