Status of Design-Build in the US Water and Wastewater Sectors - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 33

Project: Central Arizona Project (CAP) Pipeline
Owner: Town of Gilbert and City of Chandler, Arizona
Design-Build (DB) Entity: Achen-Gardner Construction LLC (Formerly
Achen-Gardner Engineering, LLC), with HDR Engineering and Stantec
Inc.
Completion Date: November 2008
Description of Project
The Town of Gilbert (TOG) and the City of Chandler (COC) needed to place in
service 13.5 miles (22 km) of 48-mgd (182-ML/d) capacity pipeline to furnish raw
water from the CAP canal to its new joint potable water treatment plant by early
2009. Growth in Maricopa and Pinal Counties was putting high demands on the
existing infrastructure. In addition to standard design and construction scopes, the
design-builder was responsible for right-of-way (ROW) acquisitions, permitting,
stakeholder communications, and the associated risks to schedule. These risks were
high, largely because the alignment crossed through several local, state, and federal
jurisdictions. The project, delivered through progressive DB delivery, not only met
the owners' quality expectations for the finished product but also was completed on
budget and ahead of schedule.
The design-builder was procured through a qualifications-based selection in
mid-2006. The design-builder sized the pipeline and completed a comprehensive
alignment study that reduced ROW acquisitions and facilitated the phased design,
permitting, and construction.
Design-build allowed for an innovative, phased approach whereby the owner
exercised direct control over the project's design and construction costs and fees. A
fixed maximum price in the contract encouraged the design-builder to develop cost-
effective alternatives and provided the owner with cost certainty and savings. For
example, the project had a $45 million program for construction and ROW acquisi-
tions, but the design-builder delivered these services for under $39 million (i.e., a 13
percent savings).
The majority of the pipeline was located outside the TOG's boundaries in the
Town of Queen Creek and Pinal County, and the design-builder was tasked with
acquiring all property for the pipeline's route. To ensure that these two principal
stakeholders were “on-board,” the design-builder involved them in a nonmonetary
alignment evaluation. A preferred corridor for the pipeline was defined early in the
schedule.
The design-builder managed the serious delay risks of acquiring real property
interests by identifying and mitigating these risks early in the project. Title reports
were developed for all 165 adjacent properties. Though this and the nonmonetary
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