WCW24

Wastewater and water project delivery is changing. Projects are most typically delivered using traditional methods such as Design-Bid-Build as they are the most common, well-understood models that provide perceived stability, certainty and confidence. However, in the aftermath of covid, the pressures have exponentially increased which has resulted in a paradigm shift. Project expectations have accelerated to greater speeds, higher quality and reduced rates, at a time when the risks are much greater as we are still living with the aftershock of unprecedented uncertainty and instability across all supply chains. There continues to be an ongoing desperate struggle to supply materials, equipment and labor to meet specific project schedules, demands and expectations. Regardless of which role any of us plays in our water and wastewater project deliveries, owners, project managers, engineers, and construction experts are all experiencing negative and significant impacts. As a total industry we need to take a step back and objectively view the unique challenges inherent in our projects and consider that we need to consider a different approach to their foundational set up including the delivery method used. The alternative and collaborative delivery methodology includes Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Alliancing, and even Progressive Design Build (PDB). These methods are all focused on integrated practices that break down silos within our industry, especially between design and construction. They are focused on early contractor involvement to designing in constructability, supply chain availabilities, and increased consideration for innovation. They have an increased focus on proactive, integrated, adaptive, and agile planning systems to reconcile and balance all variables in improved ways to achieve owners' value proposition working within constraints of time and budget. This has also raised increased awareness on the importance of the more humanistic domains and related topics for work team environments including team performance, engagement, behaviors, trust and culture. Lastly and possibly more importantly, these methods also have proven themselves as a way to lower risk, stabilize schedule and navigate our increased complexity. This session will explore the new and emerging methodologies that are playing out in North America in infrastructure and dig into the key aspects and challenges to delivering them. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of how to determine when to consider these models, and how to prepare themselves for successfully implementation.