Planning and Defining the Design-Build Procurement Process - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 103

Project: Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Facility
Owner: City of Holyoke, Massachusetts
Design-Build-Operate (DBO) Entity: AECOM
Completion Date: November 2007
Description of Project
Holyoke, Mass., is an older industrial city with limited resources and aging waste-
water infrastructure located along the Connecticut River. It has over 16 combined
sewer overflow (CSO) discharge locations into the Connecticut River. A significant
portion of the more than 500 mil gal (1,900 ML) per year of CSOs into the river came
from CSO outfall No. 9 in Holyoke. The high bacteria levels from the untreated
CSO discharge affected water quality for 15 to 30 mi (24 to 48 km) downstream of
the discharge. The City was under a consent order from the USEPA to abate both
dry and wet weather overflows such that CSO outfall No. 9 would not be permitted
more than four untreated overflows per year.
Why the Owner Chose Design-Build-Operate
The City needed an innovative and cost-effective technical solution and integrated
project delivery method to build a new 103-mgd (390-ML/d) CSO treatment facil-
ity on budget and on schedule. In addition, significant repairs and upgrades were
needed at the City's wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) including headworks,
dewatering, aeration, and odor control systems. The City decided to combine the
new CSO treatment facility and the WWTP upgrades into a single DB project val-
ued at $24 million along with long-term operation.
The City obtained authority to contract for the project using the design-build-
operate (DBO) delivery method under special legislation adopted by the Massa-
chusetts Legislature. Although the city only received one proposal, it was able to
successfully negotiate a contract with the design-builder.
Lessons Learned
Lessons learned from the owner's perspective include:
• A strong procurement team with experienced advisors is important.
• A partnership approach with mutual trust during contract negotiation yields
the best results.
• The final contract needs to be balanced to create an attractive, ongoing
business relationship.
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