Project Owner and Design Criteria Professional Interaction with Design-Build Team in a Successful Florida Wastewater Program Expansion

Located in the Florida panhandle, the Okaloosa County Water and Sewer (OCWS) Department chose the Design-Build delivery method for the 50 million capital expansion of its wastewater treatment system to take advantage of single-source responsibility, streamlined project schedule, and cost savings opportunities through design innovation. OCWS retained a Design Criteria Professional and Program Manager to collaboratively specify key design elements it sought for the new plant, and to develop a qualifications-based solicitation for a Design-Builder. The presentation summarizes three critical factors that were the bible for this successful project team: (1) trust; (2) extensive and open communications; and, (3) an environment open to innovative ideas and the opportunity to challenge concepts to benefit of the project objectives. The speakers will describe steps taken to create a highly effective team synergy that led to exceptional conceptual design collaboration. The audience will be able to apply these concepts for their upcoming capital improvement program. The Panelists consist of all project stakeholders and will summarize overall project schedule, describe the specifics of the Design-Build project delivery, and lessons learned. Attendees will benefit with active and specific discussion of all project elements that resulted in facility commissioning on budget and ahead of schedule. Specifically the audience will take lessons learned for:How to develop a qualifications-based selection process in accordance with Florida Statues and effectively manage available funds allocated for project completionHow Owners can specify their project wishes without sacrificing innovation opportunitiesHow to coordinate and manage the diverse roles and responsibilities of the Owner, Program Managers, and the Design-Builder to ensure success through teamworkThe Design-Build (DB) delivery method for wastewater and water projects offers several distinct advantages to municipal utilities. Key considerations include schedule compression and single-source responsibility for the design, construction, and project commissioning. Okaloosa County saw that the advantages of a successful design-build project could be applied to the new planned 10 million gallon per day (MGD) water reclamation facility. The County retained a Design Criteria Professional (DCP) and a Program Manager (PM) to develop not only the project-specific design criteria, but also the Request for Qualifications (RFQ), the Request for Proposals (RFP), the opinion of probable project costs, and to provide ongoing technical support through design and construction phases. As the project proceeded, a series of well-documented hurricanes impacted Florida in general, but also Okaloosa County located in the states panhandle. The severity of this series of hurricanes had an almost immediate affect on the prices of labor, concrete, and structural steel. In order to manage the budgeted resources, OCWS, the PM, and the DCP worked closely to identify cost-saving measures to ensure that their wastewater treatment needs would not be adversely impacted.