How DC Water Created an In-House Design Team

When the Board of Directors at DC Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) decided to start designing projects with in-house staff, DC Water identified the resources necessary to create something from nothing. After five years of increasing capabilities DC Water has an entirely self-sufficient design team. The team started with a supervisor and five employees from other parts of the organization. Today there are 18 individuals on the team, including surveyors, CAD technicians, engineers, supervisors, and an administrative assistant. This team produces bid packages for one of the Board's key performance indicators: replace 1% of linear water infrastructure every year. The team also produces designs for various sewer rehabilitation projects and emergency responses. Creation of this team required multiple change efforts, working like a step function; every couple of years a new set of required skills and capabilities were added to the team's responsibilities. Working in partnership with consulting engineers yielded a successful model even though ultimate success meant fewer projects would be designed by those consulting engineers. This paper and presentation will share the step function of skills we used to create the group over the course of several years. It will also share the challenges we experienced and the solutions to some of those challenges. The paper and presentation will also explore the benefits and downsides to having a design team within the owner organization. Lastly, the paper will share ideas on how to do it better next time. If any other utility owners are considering a similar change, they can use the information provided to evaluate their options, manage risks, and possibly avoid some of the growing pains. Hint: you won't avoid all the problems and it never gets easy.