Bring on the Retrofit: Design-Build Success Improves RO Facility

Design-build provides “reliable, cutting edge and much-improved facility”

The October 2015 issue of Florida Water Resources Journal features “Bring on the Retrofit!,” an article co-authored by the City of Venice (Fla.), Haskell and McKim & Creed that explores the situation, process and lessons learned from the city’s recent reverse osmosis water treatment facility improvement project.

The article describes the City of Venice’s foray into the water business in 1945, the installation of a reverse osmosis (RO) treatment system in 1975, and the challenges encountered in 2007 when the aging membranes were in “dire need of replacement.” After much discussion and debate, city staff determined that a “progressive design-build delivery methods would best meet project goals and objectives, which included meeting project schedule, maintaining control of the project budget, and achieving the best overall value for engineering, equipment, and construction with the completed project.

In 2012, the city tasked the team of  Haskell and McKim & Creed to “provide preconstruction and construction services to evaluate alternatives, design and install new membranes, pumps, filters, chemical feed pumps, clean in-place system and upgrade the SCADA system.” The project, now completed, meets the city’s original goals “in fine fashion, providing the city with a reliable, cutting edge, and much-improved facility that can be expanded and meet the city’s drinking water needs for several decades, all without incurring the huge expense (estimated at $45-50 million) of relocating the facility to another site.”

Click here to read the entire article.