Forty years ago, PCL established its Civil Division in Phoenix. The timing proved consequential. Over the next four decades, Arizona would become a proving ground for some of North America's most ambitious water infrastructure projects as communities worked to secure reliable supplies in an increasingly arid climate.

Today, that work is more important than ever.

Since 2000, the Southwest has experienced its driest period in at least 1,200 years. Lake Mead, the nation's largest reservoir, fell to just 1,040 feet, the lowest level ever. This year, Arizona agreed to reduce Colorado River water use by 1.25 million acre-feet, affecting municipalities, agriculture and water users across the state. The Bureau of Reclamation projections show the potential for more historic lows by 2027.

It’s clear that the water strategies that sustained Arizona’s growth to this point are being tested by new realities.

Fortunately, Arizona's water and construction communities began adapting long before today’s water challenges reached a breaking point. The infrastructure being built today reflects a fundamental shift in how the state thinks about water and how it can be recovered, recycled and future-proofed.

When Colorado River allocations began to tighten and aquifers declined, Phoenix faced an immediate challenge: how to diversify water supplies to combat shrinking availability.

PCL's Phoenix Civil team was part of the solution. The rehabilitation of the 24th Street Water Treatment Plant maintained uninterrupted water service for 400,000 residents in northern Phoenix, even as pandemic-era supply chain disruptions threatened timelines and material availability. The project was later named the Arizona Water Association's 2026 Water Treatment Project of the Year.

The project demonstrated that building resilience is not always about new infrastructure. Sometimes it means extending the life and reliability of essential existing assets. Delivered as a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) project with Carollo Engineers, the rehabilitation maintained uninterrupted service while modernizing the facility.

The Zone 3D and 4A Improvements Program took a different approach. The 76-million-gallon-per-day booster pump station connects Phoenix's Salt River and Colorado River water systems, giving the city the flexibility to draw from either source as allocations fluctuate. Its infrastructure is designed for a future in which water security depends on flexibility rather than any single source.

“The timeline was critical for the City. They needed the pump stations and the overall program completed by the end of 2022 to give buffer time before the Colorado River cuts,” says Quinton Slack, project manager for PCL Construction’s Civil Division in Phoenix. “Staying on schedule was absolutely critical to ensure they could maintain compliance and support long-term water delivery.”

The projects underway today are larger and more complex, and they signal where water infrastructure is headed.

Collaborative delivery has been a turning point for PCL's Civil Division. The company's first project using the approach was at the City of Phoenix's 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant. Since then, collaborative delivery has become a preferred model for many large public infrastructure projects, helping owners, designers and builders work together to address increasingly complex challenges.

The Town of Gilbert’s North Water Treatment Plant Upgrades and Reconstruction project reflects that evolution. At $536 million, it is one of the largest clean-water investments in Arizona's history. When completed in 2029, the facility will increase treatment capacity to 60 million gallons per day and provide service to an additional 100,000 residents, strengthening the region's ability to support future growth.

"The Gilbert North Water Treatment Plant expansion gives the Town the capacity and resilience it needs to support a growing population while treating more challenging water conditions in Arizona, including higher turbidity, or cloudier water, caused by drought, heat and wildfire impacts," says Adam Gordon, construction manager for PCL's Civil Division in Phoenix.

The next frontier is water reuse. In February of 2025, PCL broke ground on the El Paso Pure Water Center in Texas, a collaborative delivery project that will become the nation's first direct-to-distribution potable reuse facility. For the first time, purified recycled water will flow directly into a city's drinking water supply without first replenishing a groundwater basin or reservoir. The $295 million facility will produce 10 million gallons of drinking water per day and is expected to be operational by 2028.

"Our hope is that the Pure Water Center will set a new standard for water resiliency across the country," says Ankur Talwar, district manager for PCL's Civil Division.

Water managers in Phoenix and Tucson are paying close attention. As Colorado River allocations continue to tighten, direct potable reuse is increasingly viewed as a promising tool for strengthening long-term water security.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has accelerated that shift, providing significant federal investment in water infrastructure and supporting communities facing some of the country's most pressing water challenges.

Arizona's population has more than doubled since PCL's Phoenix Civil office opened 40 years ago, yet current water use is lower than it was in the 1970s. That balance didn't happen by accident — it was built, project by project, over four decades of investment in treatment, rehabilitation, reuse and resilience.

Though PCL’s Civil Division began in Arizona and remains deeply rooted there, the past 40 years have been marked by remarkable growth. Today, the division is building more than 100 active projects across the United States with over 600 completed, bringing its expertise, innovation and commitment to excellence and safety to communities from coast to coast.

Four decades after establishing its Civil division in Phoenix, PCL continues to help communities adapt to a changing water landscape. What began in Arizona now extends across the country, from the Treasure Island Water Resource Recovery Facility in San Francisco, which replaces aging infrastructure and meets the island’s wastewater and recycled water needs, to the Bayshore Pumping Station Rehabilitation in Tampa, which is helping modernize aging water and wastewater infrastructure while strengthening flood resilience. The challenges are evolving, but the goal remains the same: build the infrastructure needed to secure reliable water supplies and stronger communities for future generations.