The challenge of community-based water main replacement (WMR) is amplified by the construction’s impact on residents and businesses. Let’s face it, these types of projects [with] multiple homes along both sides of the street, dead-ends, within limited right-of-way, mature trees, numerous utilities, etc., can be among the most difficult to design, plan, and construct. Within Howard County, a method was sought that would allow advancing a capital water main replacement project quickly plus cost-effectively, while using the best procurement practices of design-bid-build and design-build. The Wilde Lake WMR effort was our pilot project to do just that. Minimal surveying, minimal pre-design, enhanced inspection and as-builting, and procurement refinement allowed the fast-tracking of this 44,000 LF 8–12-inch water main project to be a success and model for similar efforts that will follow. This presentation will draw comparisons to this effort versus prior and post efforts of similar size and scope and reflect on the ability of the approach to meet the time and cost-saving project objectives to become a model for accelerating projects in the future.

After this session, participants will be better able to:
• Identify projects that meet the criteria for a similar accelerated approach.
• Evaluate the risks and rewards of accelerating a water main replacement using a minimal pre-design approach.
• Identify best practices and lessons learned for as-builting and construction record-keeping under this accelerated approach.

Contributor/Source

Daniel Davis-Chief-Bureau of Engineering

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