Reimagining Capital Delivery to Accelerate Infrastructure Rehabilitation

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) is an industry leader in developing and adopting new business practices that improve the value delivered to their customers. As part of this drive for excellence, WSSC Water evaluated the potential benefit of leveraging expedited sewer rehabilitation to reduce capital costs and increase the benefit of the Sewer and Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Programs especially with regard to infiltration and inflow (I&I) reduction. As part of this evaluation, WSSC Water partnered with Arcadis to identify and assess existing costs, effectiveness, advantages and weaknesses of the current and other potential sewer rehabilitation approaches. Four parameters were used to define potential approaches including extent (e.g., find and fix vs. holistic), implementation (e.g., traditional vs. expedited), technology (e.g., lining-centric vs. grout-centric), and contract method (e.g., plan-design-bid-build vs. plan-CMAR). An alternatives analysis was conducted demonstrating a cost comparison, benefits to the scheduled, program effectiveness, and market capacity to deliver this work for select number of the possible approaches. Additionally, to provide a benchmark against potential changes outlined in the alternatives analysis, WSSC Water engaged key stakeholders in the sewer rehabilitation process from project initiation to delivery to streamline the process to address key pain points. This was done, by first, accurately capturing the core end-to-end process and relevant workstreams. A combination of data review, interviews, and collaborative work sessions were executed to identify process stakeholders, activities, technology, pain points, and improvement opportunities. Over 25 staff members were engaged in interviews and work sessions to map the current business process and identify and prioritize pain points experienced. After leadership confirmation, these stakeholders then engaged in additional work sessions to develop solutions for the leading pain points identified. These solutions were then incorporated into a to-be business process map. Stakeholders also discussed a timeline for process development and categorized building blocks into implementation horizons to create an implementation plan for the to-be business process. By combining a deep knowledge of various techniques and technologies associated with expedited sewer rehabilitation as well as an understanding of current and potential business processes, WSSC Water executed a collaborative approach in achieving their objectives of optimizing the sewer rehabilitation process that was fit for the utility. This presentation will take participants through WSSC Water's journey of evaluating the various approaches to sewer rehabilitation, documenting their current process, and addressing key pain points as well as the outcomes and decisions made by the utility.