Playing Your Cards Right in Shreveport, LA How the City Completed 189 Miles (1 Million Feet) of Sewer Rehabilitation in 24 Months

The City of Shreveport (City), with a population of approximately 200,000, is the third largest city in the state of Louisiana. Over the years, the City’s population has grown significantly and along with it, the City’s Sanitary Sewer infrastructure. The City’s sanitary sewer infrastructure had also aged and deteriorated significantly, with much of it requiring sustained maintenance or rehabilitation. The sanitary sewer overflows (SSO) caused by extraneous flows entering the aging infrastructure resulted in the City entering a federally mandated Consent Decree (CD) with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2014. The City’s initial approach to meeting the CD requirements was largely influenced by the traditional “Replace All” approach. The City quickly realized that the “Replace All” approach was – disruptive, challenging, and cost-prohibitive. The City ultimately decided to adopt a “Trenchless First” approach, which facilitated meeting the CD goals, and saved the City over 100,000,000.The tight construction completion schedule imposed by the CD created major challenges that will be discussed in this paper. Phase 1 construction, which included over 241 kilometer (km) or 150 miles of sewer, had to be completed within 24 months. The work was re-organized into 28 strategically consolidated bid packages. Based on bid results, the work was awarded and performed by 13 different prime contractors. Through tight construction management and oversight, including increased use of trenchless technologies whenever possible, the negotiated CD deadlines were met and all Phase 1 sewer rehabilitation work was functionally complete on time.