Balancing Prescription and Innovation through Design-Build of a Major Recycled Water Conveyance Project

The city of Modesto's North Valley Regional Recycled Water Program is one of the largest water recycling projects in the country, constructing a 32 million gallons per day (121,100 cubic meters per day), 3,000-horsepower (2,200 kW) pump station, 7 mi (11.2 km) of 42-in (1.06 m) diameter pipeline with a 2,800-ft (0.9 km) horizontal directional drill, a jack and bore highway crossing, and an outfall structure to the federally owned Delta Mendota Canal. Funding this major project came with aggressive schedule requirements. To meet these requirements, Modesto chose a new approach: design-build. Using this approach, Modesto was able to finish the project a year faster compared to traditional design-bid-build. This paper describes Modesto's approach to leveraging the benefits of design-build while including requirements important to Modesto. It describes the design-build procurement process, from developing a procurement strategy to implementing a two-stage selection process, and ultimately selecting a design-builder. The paper also discusses the lessons learned, such as the need to involve the design-build team early on and to balance cost and non-cost evaluation criteria. Finally, it discusses the project's successes and failures and makes specific recommendations to avoid potential pitfalls while harnessing the benefits of design-build. The project was deemed substantially complete in December 2017.