Conference Agenda

Summary: This presentation will detail the key challenges Jefferson County faced in constructing a completely new wastewater treatment plant and collection system. Attendees will gain knowledge of strategies for implementing a large project involving multiple grant funding agencies, as well as bidding strategies for an inflationary climate.

Abstract:

Jefferson County, Washington, is implementing a new sewer utility and constructing a sewer system in the unincorporated area of Port Hadlock, south of the City of Port Townsend. Port Hadlock is a moderately developed rural area that is currently served by on-site septic systems. Jefferson County has worked diligently with the community and with funding partners to develop an affordable project at a sensible scale to provide a financially sustainable wastewater system that meets community needs.

Topics that will be discussed:

• Value Engineering—This project implemented value engineering recommendations to include updated planning requirements and industry advances in modular MBR treatment processes to accommodate “just-in-time” implementation of current and future treatment capacity.
• Equipment Vendor Selection—Jefferson County pre-selected an MBR vendor and contracted a price in advance of construction. This process included a scope of work for vendor design services, flow and treatment design criteria, system expansion requirements, and pricing.
• Construction Contracting Strategy—Jefferson County broke the work into several contracts and phases to ensure bidding opportunities for contractors, to attract bids from local and regional contractors, to ensure competitive bids, and to track and manage the spending of grant funds from several funding sources more efficiently. The project was divided into four contract bid packages: Treatment Plant Site/Civil, Treatment Plant Construction, Pressure Sewer Collection System, and On-Site Grinder Pump Installation.
• Results—The Treatment Plant Site/Civil contract is bidding in March of 2023 and will be under construction by June 2023. By September of 2023, Jefferson County expects to have the Treatment Plant Construction and Pressure Sewer Collection System contracts bid and construction under way. The presentation will describe the status of construction and lessons learned on the processes to get construction initiated.

As we’ve come out of the COVID era, supply chain shortages for many types of materials, equipment, and labor have persisted, increasing the likelihood that your equipment will be significantly delayed, creating missed deadlines and challenging construction. In order to avoid these pitfalls resulting from expected and unexpected long lead times, early procurement has become more critical than ever. Alternative delivery methods such as design-build and CMGC are one way to perform early procurement. However, many owners are unwilling to go to alternative delivery creating a need for a more aggressive pre-procurement strategy for conventional design and delivery (design-bid-build) process. Pre-purchases under conventional delivery are often more challenging than for alternative delivery, adding risks to owners and design engineers. This presentation will identify some of the issues we currently face when taking on pre-procurement, review lessons learned from the good and bad case studies and propose some strategies to increase certainty, reduce delays, maximize the likelihood of a quality product and minimize the risk of pre-procurement.

As owners small and large grapple with generational infrastructure projects to respond to climate change impacts, deteriorated infrastructure and increasingly stringent regulations, more and more are looking to Progressive Design-Build (PDB) as the delivery model of choice. A well-planned, transparent, and organized procurement process rooted in the owner’s priorities and drivers is critical to setting the stage for successful PDB delivery. For those new to PDB, or those who use it infrequently, getting started is daunting; the need for immediate and practical guidance has never been more important. The Water Collaborative Delivery Association (WCDA, formerly the Water Design Build Council) has recently revamped its PDB Procurement Guide, which provides owners with user-friendly RFQ and RFP templates for use as well as advice on how to procure the right PDB delivery partner.

This presentation will provide an overview of the WCDA PDB Procurement Guide and discuss specific activities and best practices to procure a PDB delivery partner, including:

- Appropriate timing of procurement and market engagement activities

- The importance of early development and disclosure of contract terms and risk allocation and providing opportunities for market feedback

- How to tailor RFQ and RFP requirements to match owner goals and objectives

Learning Objectives:

- Understand how early market engagement, tailored RFQ and RFP requirements and confidential meetings increase the likelihood that owners select the delivery partner best suited to tackle their specific project challenges.

- Define the value of securing proposer input on draft contract and commercial terms in establishing a balanced contract and fair allocation of risk – which is critical to setting the stage for successful PDB execution

- Discuss how to incorporate request for pricing information in a way that produces apples-to-apples submissions from Proposers and supports successful project execution.

- Understand what tools exist to support development of quality RFQ and RFP documents