Design-Build Project Achieves Ambitious Budget, Schedule and Water Supply Diversification Goals

Parker Water and Sanitation District (PWSD) previously relied on groundwater as their sole water source. Due to the diminishing nature of this finite source, it was essential for PWSD to reduce reliance on groundwater and diversify its water supplies. PWSD joined the Water Infrastructure and Supply Efficiency (WISE) project to partner with other Denver-area providers and meet the region’s growing demands. This partnership provided PWSD access to an average of 1,200 acre-feet of renewable water resources each year but required major changes to their infrastructure — including transitioning their disinfection system from chlorination to chlorination. Black & Veatch was selected to lead PWSD through their first-ever progressive design-build facility — the Water Resources Centralization Project (WRCP).

Major components of the WRCP included 17 distribution system entry points consolidated into seven existing well houses, conversion of the primary disinfection process from chlorine gas to sodium hypochlorite, and installation of liquid ammonium sulfate systems for conversion to chloramines. It also involved nine miles of new pipelines to distribute groundwater to three centralized disinfection facilities, a four-mile distribution pipeline and pump station, and a 100,000-gallon raw water reservoir.

Despite the project’s challenging budget and schedule, the project’s progressive design-build delivery enabled the following notable achievements:

Fast-tracked delivery to meet objectives. PWSD chose the progressive design-build delivery model due to its aggressive schedule opportunities, as they had a time-sensitive obligation to provide water to a major customer. The $39.2-million WRCP was completed in just 14 months by coordinating various activities in parallel, including permitting, property easement acquisition, early work packages for long-lead items, and strategic construction sequencing.

Value engineering to reduce project cost by $8 million. To reduce costs and meet PWSD’s revised GMP, the team conducted a value-engineering exercise with key subcontractors to review the design and reassess the scope (even after the subcontracts already had been awarded). As a result, opportunities were identified to reduce construction costs by $8 million.

Effective communication to strengthen team and community relationships. Another benefit of progressive design-build is the collaborative project environment it facilitates. PWSD and Black & Veatch leadership collaborated in frequent progress meetings and quarterly partnering sessions to have detailed and honest discussions on goal tracking and risk mitigation strategies. The team engaged with the surrounding community as well by hosting events and transparently informing the public about the WRCP’s disinfection methods and construction progress.

“Black & Veatch partnered with [PWSD] in a professional manner to provide the necessary support to navigate our first design-build project. We [were] impressed with the highly qualified team that Black & Veatch provided. Black & Veatch is a valued partner in the project.”

-- Rebecca W. Tejada, P.E., Senior Project Manager, Parker Water and Sanitation District

Despite the project’s challenging budget and schedule, the project’s progressive design-build delivery enabled the following notable achievements:

Fast-tracked delivery to meet objectives. PWSD chose the progressive design-build delivery model due to its aggressive schedule opportunities, as they had a time-sensitive obligation to provide water to a major customer. The $39.2-million WRCP was completed in just 14 months by coordinating various activities in parallel, including permitting, property easement acquisition, early work packages for long-lead items, and strategic construction sequencing.

Value engineering to reduce project cost by $8 million. To reduce costs and meet PWSD’s revised GMP, the team conducted a value-engineering exercise with key subcontractors to review the design and reassess the scope (even after the subcontracts already had been awarded). As a result, opportunities were identified to reduce construction costs by $8 million.

Effective communication to strengthen team and community relationships. Another benefit of progressive design-build is the collaborative project environment it facilitates. PWSD and Black & Veatch leadership collaborated in frequent progress meetings and quarterly partnering sessions to have detailed and honest discussions on goal tracking and risk mitigation strategies. The team engaged with the surrounding community as well by hosting events and transparently informing the public about the WRCP’s disinfection methods and construction progress.

“Black & Veatch partnered with [PWSD] in a professional manner to provide the necessary support to navigate our first design-build project. We [were] impressed with the highly qualified team that Black & Veatch provided. Black & Veatch is a valued partner in the project.”

-- Rebecca W. Tejada, P.E., Senior Project Manager, Parker Water and Sanitation District