Posted Jan. 22, 2025

Richmond, VA – The City of Richmond has retained HNTB Corporation, an infrastructure development firm with more than 100 years of experience, to conduct an independent after-action report of the circumstances surrounding a weather-related power disruption to the water treatment plant that resulted in facility flooding, equipment malfunction, and a water service outage beginning on Jan. 6.
HNTB specializes in an array of infrastructure services including architecture, aviation, bridges and highways, construction management, mass transit, tunnels, and water systems.

From the earliest days of the outage – even as efforts were underway to restore water service – Richmond Mayor Danny Avula pledged that the City would bring in outside experts to lead a comprehensive, transparent, and independent investigation.

“I am committed to having a thorough investigation into what happened at the water treatment plant last week, and bringing HNTB on board is a key step in that process,” said Richmond Mayor Danny Avula. “As we move forward, my partners on City Council and I will keep the public informed and up to date on the after-action process.”

Having HNTB probe the water treatment plant outage will help officials better understand the events that transpired and provide a clear assessment of the performance of plant equipment and personnel during the outage.

Mayor Avula, in collaboration with City Council President Cynthia I. Newbille and City Council Vice President Katherine Jordan, interviewed a series of firms before narrowing the list to a few finalists, from which HNTB was selected.

"Vice President Jordan and I were pleased to work collaboratively with the Mayor and Administration to identify an independent third-party consultant to help us complete a thorough review of the water system and the recent crisis response. We have confidence that the community's voice will be at the center of HNTB's process.” said City Council President Cynthia I. Newbille.

The hiring of HNTB is an important step forward in identifying root causes and any potential system breakdowns in water treatment plant processes and operations.