Delivering a New Water Supply to Union County, North Carolina using an Integrated Delivery Model

The Yadkin River Water Supply Project (YRWSP) is an effort by Union County, NC to meet the growing demand for water in the County’s Yadkin River Basin Service Area. Union County has seen significant growth over the past two decades as a result of the expanding Charlotte metropolitan region. While Union County has proven to be an attractive place to live for new (and existing) residents, it does not have a major surface water supply source within it’s county boundaries. Union County jointly owns a water treatment plant with the Lancaster County Water and Sewer District that utilizes the Catawba River for drinking water supply primarily to Catawba River Basin service area residents. However, Union County has a regulatory limit of only 5 million gallons per day (MGD) that they are allowed to transfer from this Catawba River source into their Yadkin River Basin service area. Year 2050 projections indicate a ‘shortfall’ of 28 MGD in maximum day demand in their Yadkin River Basin service area, which comprises more than half the county land area. Thus, the County has been working diligently on a long-term sustainable water supply for their current and future customers in the Yadkin River Basin service area.Since 2012, Union County has completed a complex Interlocal Intake and Transmission Agreement with the Town of Norwood and secured an Interbasin Transfer (IBT) Certificate from the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission. The IBT Certificate included four years of effort developing an Environmental Impact Statement, securing stakeholder input, and completing extensive modeling and preliminary engineering efforts. Completion of the Interlocal Intake and Transmission Agreement and the pursuit of the IBT Certificate were highlighted at a presentation at the 2016 WEF Utility Management Conference.The IBT Certificate was approved in May of 2016. In late 2016, Union County received Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) for an Owner’s Engineer/Program Manager to assist Union County Public Works (UCPW) staff with the delivery of the YRWSP infrastructure. The Owner’s Engineer/Program Manager is a role that is designed to serve as ‘an extension of staff’ throughout the life of the projects that will comprise the YRWSP. HDR was selected as the UCPW’s Program Manager. Based on current water demand projections, the YRWSP must be complete by the Year 2021. Given this aggressive timeline, the County desired to move forward with design and construction while the IBT certificate was in the final stages of review and approval.The YRWSP infrastructure program includes a new raw water intake (for both the Town of Norwood and Union County) adjacent to Lake Tillery, a 28-mile pipeline through Stanly County into Union County, a new 12-mgd water treatment plant in Union County, and 11-miles of finished water distribution infrastructure to convey treated water into the County’s existing water distribution system. The overall project has a current cost opinion of $205 million. The County had a strong preference for delivery of this infrastructure in one or more projects using alternative delivery methods (e.g. design-build (D-B)).Given the scope, complexity, and fast-track nature of this project, the Program Manager’s general scope of services includes:Developing the overall program master schedule and suggested project delivery packages.Coordinating design and construction efforts.Developing necessary design standards and preliminary design concepts as required.Managing the overall program budget.Managing the coordination of overall project communications.Defining the scope of services for various project participants.Guiding the County in selection of D-B teams.Assisting with the development of comprehensive agreements for D-B teams.Assisting with the negotiation of D-B contracts and guaranteed maximum prices (GMP)Monitoring the design contract including technical reviews and design/cost/schedule control.Developing opinions of probable construction costs (OPCCs).Monitoring and administering construction contracts.Coordinating overall permitting efforts.Leading the land acquisition efforts.Coordinating SCADA systems and planning.Providing value engineering services. Developing Building Information Modeling (3-D design) standards and coordinating with D-B Teams to facilitate UCPWs long-term asset management program goals.Coordinating with the Town of Norwood and Stanly County, including quarterly Board meeting updates with the Town.This paper focuses on the process used by Union County to determine ‘how’ to package the infrastructure projects and ‘what’ integrated delivery model to use. The use of integrated delivery has become more popular in the last few years as recent statutory changes made it easier to utilize these methods for public infrastructure projects, particularly in NC.