Water/wastewater infrastructure - the lifeline of the community, the enabler of growth, and likely one of the highest areas of cost for a municipality. But with water and sewer charges levied directly to customers, the taxpayers, it’s also the object of great criticism. Highly publicized cost overruns and delayed schedules manifest in community frustration with these projects and the elected officials and the staff responsible to deliver them. Value Engineering can successfully maximize the cost-effectiveness of infrastructure delivery by focusing on right-sized, right-featured solutions.
Several case studies highlight the approaches used by municipal agencies to successfully deliver highly effective water/wastewater solutions to support their service improvement and growth needs.
Mike will review a presentation of lessons learned from their first Value Engineering exercise in Renfrew Ontario. Mike will also outline the impact the VE process has had on the Development of the Water Pollution Control Plant project.
Mike gives an “owners” perspective on the process and summarizes whether the tangible and non-tangible benefits were worth the cost and effort.
The Ravensview Wastewater Treatment Plant was identified in 2003 as requiring upgrades to increase the hydraulic capacity to meet the growth projections for Kingston, Ontario and also to add advanced secondary treatment to meet the provincial effluent guidelines. A key to the success of the project, which was undertaken over a 6 year period, was the completion of a Value Engineering session. Having completed the necessary planning and preliminary design, Utilities Kingston (the operating authority for the plant) and the engineering design team completed a four day Value Engineering Workshop project to ensure that the works proposed would meet the City of Kingston’s needs and provide the best value to the customers.
The Value Engineering Workshop was deemed a success by Utilities Kingston. The outcomes produced verification that critical design decisions were correct, provided opportunity to include additional features to make operations more flexible and provided for substantial projected cost savings. As the project at the time, was the largest municipally funded capital works, Value Engineering was considered beneficial.
Starting in 2009, the City began the process to design and construct a water treatment plant. In the beginning, it set several key goals for the project, including:
Adopting a multi-barrier approach
To meet or exceed GCDWQ, VIHA regulations
To proceed with sustainable design objectives
To minimize liquid discharge from the site
Meet 20 year max day demand
To achieve the lowest Life Cycle Cost
In support of the key objective of achieving the lowest life cycle cost, the City undertook two Value Engineering Studies under the direction of a Certified Value Specialist – one at completion of preliminary design; the second at completion of the 50% detailed design. The timing and results of the VE Study produced an extremely positive result on the project, in terms of operability, lower cost and preparation for future expansion. The VE Team, consisting of experts from across North America, were particularly supportive towards the project and enabled the City to realize great benefit, value and excellent return on investment for the Study.
Tenders were received that were significantly over the estimated cost, and the lowest bidder recommended conducting a further VE, or scope-reducing exercise to help trim the capital cost.
The presentation provides a brief overview of the project, including major ‘before and after’ changes, lessons learned about VE, and an Owner’s perspective on the value of Value Engineering.
The imminent construction of Coopertown, a future planned community in Regina, Saskatchewan, as well as the City of Regina’s long-term growth projections, warranted study for additional wastewater servicing, including a new wastewater lift station. Existing facilities are at or near capacity, and the project scope included providing wastewater servicing for the future Coopertown community and neighbouring communities, as well as integrating the design with the city’s ultimate development plans. Two two-day Value Engineering and Risk Analysis workshops have been conducted for this project.
This presentation shows how the integration of Value Engineering-based design benefited this project. Integrating Value Engineering into a project’s design development and work plan from the beginning involves all key stakeholders and accelerates detailed designs while reducing risk and rework. Applying these principles has helped the Coopertown Lift Station project vastly increase its value and move much closer to achieving its goals.
The $600M 15km Hanlan Feedermain project is Peel Region’s largest-ever infrastructure initiative. The new feedermain is intended to address aging infrastructure and unnecessary risk by introducing a greater measure of redundancy in the system for operational and maintenance purposes, and to provide additional capacity. A separate 1200mm watermain providing additional capacity to accommodate intensification of the Mississauga City Centre area was also included in the scope of the project.