A serious increase in demand with a shortage in supply, combined with a need for speedy delivery, led the Pala Band of Mission Indians to choose design-build for their new wastewater treatment facility. Although they were inexperienced with the delivery method, the Pala recognized design-build as the best option to meet their tight schedule. They chose J.R. Filanc Construction Company Inc. and HDR Engineering Inc. on the basis of the companies’ qualifications, innovation, quality and strong history of design-build delivery.
The Pala reservation is a thriving — and growing — community. The success of the tribe’s casino spa and resort led to an expansion of the facility. But with the expansion came an increased demand for water which, in southern California, is a precious and scarce resource. In addition to the increased demand, the Pala’s old wastewater treatment facility — aging and already unreliable — was not up to these demands. And the post-treated effluent discharged into the subsurface within the reservation was acceptable but could be improved upon.
To solve these issues, the tribe wanted to build a new, sustainable facility that would fulfill current and future needs and be an attractive addition to the casino spa and resort. Their goal was to meet California Department of Public Health Title 22 criteria for unrestricted irrigation, even though it was not specifically required. The new plant would also have to accommodate projected water needs into the future.
Pala used the one-step, Best Value Selection (BVS) process to select the most qualified design-builder for the project. The one-step process was accomplished through an RFP issued by the Pala that required those responding to demonstrate prior design-build experience, included quality and cost factors. The RFP included factors to balance cost, risk, qualifications, schedule and quality. Of the three responses, the Filanc-HDR team was selected, primarily on qualifications, with construction costs a lesser factor.
Before anything else, the design-build team and the Pala engaged in detailed discussions about the scope of the project. As the owner, Pala was adamant about the completeness of the scope, since they expected no design-builder initiated change orders. After these discussions, the scope of the project consisted of the greenfield design-build of a wastewater treatment plant and upgrades to an existing lift station. The new facility would treat all wastewater generated within the reservation and all flows from the Pala Casino Spa and Resort. It used Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) technology in concert with a microscreen disk filter and included earthwork to balance the site, a headworks building, an administration building, process tanks for the SBR and concrete and site installations. The scope of the project also included procurement and installation of all instrumentation and electrical equipment, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), mechanical piping, chemical systems and mechanical process equipment.
After the initial discussions and establishing the scope of the project, Filanc-HDR offered several major value engineering ideas, which the owner accepted. With the owner’s understanding of the design approach and construction costs, the team was able to implement ideas that resulted in cost savings with value-added features.
The schedule
The schedule was tight — the contract was signed on August 15, 2007, with completion scheduled for February 28, 2009, to coincide with completion of the major renovations and expansion of the casino spa and resort. Soon after signing, the tribe’s EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department notified the owner that the selected site was a potential habitat of the endangered California Coastal Gnatcatcher and the Arroyo Toad. A four-month biological investigation and survey followed to determine whether any endangered species lived in or around the site. Although it turned out that there were no endangered species on or near the site, this process inserted a four-month delay into the project schedule. The project team developed a work-around plan, including rescheduling the work sequence to allow for additional and simultaneous work activities, to maintain the schedule. Filanc and HDR rearranged their scheduled work plan and were able to report to the Pala that the work-around would mitigate 63 calendar days of the 115-day delay at no additional cost. The Pala agreed to the plan and issued a no-cost change to the contract.
Construction began in February of 2008 and was completed in April 2009, 23 days ahead of the revised completion date.
Working together
Filanc and HDR had worked together before on successful design-build projects. The Pala had never used design-build and were understandably cautious about using this new process. They hired a third-party project manager to monitor the progress and quality of the project; however, after several months the owners determined that the design-build team of Filanc and HDR had demonstrated design-build excellence and the project manager was released from the project.
The owner was very pleased with both the process and the final project. Garlon L. Banks, vice president of facilities and property development of the Pala Casino Resort and Spa, said, “The team of managers Filanc assigned to this project could not have been a better group of builders to work with. They have been flexible, professional, supportive of our changes and willing to help us in keeping our old WWTP operating during the process of building the new plant.” He praised the design-build team for not only responding to concerns in a timely manner, but also for taking responsibility so that the Pala team did not have to spend their time overseeing the project.
Conclusion
The completed project won a Design-Build Excellence Award in the Water/Wastewater under $25 Million category. A fast and cost-effective project design-build procurement method was especially important here, since the design-builders and the owner had to be flexible and innovative to deal with an unexpected four-month delay and still deliver the project on time and within budget.
Todd Rich is DBIA’s manager of web and graphic systems.