Success Story of Florida County Self-Performing a 6-Million Dollar Wastewater Effluent Disposal System Construction Project – Okaloosa County Florida

The Okaloosa County (Florida) Water and Sewer Department (OCWS) is developing the new Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) to meet the wastewater treatment demands in the rapidly growing service area in the southern portion of the County. The new WRF will have a treatment capacity of 10 million gallons per day (mgd) and will discharge effluent to 200 acres of new constructed Rapid Infiltration Basins (RIBs). The RIBs were constructed using OCWS construction staff and equipment, assisted by design and construction consultants. The original budget for the construction of the RIBs using a traditional design-bidbuild process was 10 million; and using County forces, the actual budget is approaching 5 million, which includes labor and equipment costs. Before the County could begin to selfperform a project of this magnitude, OCWS had to develop a plan that enabled compliance with Florida statutory requirements for self-performing construction projects greater than 200,000; to develop strategies to control unanticipated cost increases; institute programs and policies for managing and implementing the purchase and delivery of materials for the project; and ensure that the work flow process adequately allocated risk and potential conflicts with other contracts associated with the design-build project for the new WRF.