Globaltech was honored by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Florida Region with the Project of the Year Award for Best Overall in the Water/Wastewater Category!
The award is for our Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department (PBCWUD) Optimization and Improvements Continuing Design-Build Contract (2015-2018). We are proud of our history of successful projects with the PBCWUD, and this outstanding achievement!
The PBCWUD comprises a vast, county-wide network of facilities including five water treatment plants, one regional wastewater reclamation facility, and offsite facilities including storage and repump facilities, reclaim systems, wellfields, and wastewater pumping stations. Additionally, they are partners in the East Central Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility.
To develop a streamlined approach to a catalogue of capital and renewal/replacement projects, while also reducing schedule and costs, the Owner turned to the design-build, continuing-contract method of project delivery.
Under this unique approach, individual work authorizations (WA) were negotiated with an established guaranteed maximum price (GMP). Limits for each WA were set at $2 million in accordance with CCNA requirements. A total of 16 projects valued at $16,303,668 were quickly moved from concept to commissioning over a three-year period, meeting the Owner’s goals, while promoting early input, team participation, and the use of Design-Build Best Practices throughout.
Projects spanned water and wastewater treatment, storage, and pumping facilities and included: wellhead facilities; process improvements and expansions at RO, Lime Softening, and Anion Exchange systems; process renewal and replacement including pumping, power, and controls; chemical storage and feed improvements; disinfection byproduct rule compliance at offsite storage locations; reclaim facility upgrades and expansion; switchgear and process I&C upgrades; emergency power and fuel system installations; and system-wide safety improvements.
Design-Build Best Practices (DBBPs) were built into the process by the Owner’s DBIA certified project manager, and further developed by Globaltech. Additionally, “Design-Build to budget” was a hallmark of the WA/GMP development process. The DBBPs flowed logically to foster a truly collaborative project delivery environment.
Globaltech’s contract was a ‘Master” design-build agreement with a single-point of responsibility and allowed development of multiple GMP design-build WAs over a three-year period. This contract was the third in a series of continuing design-build contracts awarded to Globaltech thanks to the success of two previous contracts. The Owner has now entered into a fourth three-year contract with Globaltech.
This successful program promoted a comfort level with the Design-Build process and allowed the Owner to become a regional leader in deploying this method of project delivery. PBCWUD has delivered 100+ projects and has fostered adaptation of this delivery method by surrounding utilities.