RC115 NovDec 2024 - Magazine - Page 30
The City of Lloydminster built a state-of-the art
MBR (Membrane Bioreactor) water treatment
plant capable of removing ammonia, nitrogen
and oil flows periodically entering the water
from local businesses.
criteria to make it economically
feasible. The city’s wastewater
treatment plant “was the 昀椀rst one
we’ve ever delivered through IPD
[and] we wouldn’t use it for every
capital project [because] it needs to
be a large enough capital project
[and] enough partners to make it
worthwhile.”
As explained on Infrastructure
Ontario’s website, “the fundamental
di昀昀erence between an IPD/Alliance
and traditional contracts is the
underlying principle of a nonadversarial approach between the
contracting parties.”
An alliance contract that promotes
a positive culture based on no-fault, no-blame and unanimous
decision-making. And requires all participants to 昀椀nd the “best for
project” solutions… with a greater time commitment on the owner’s
part, but one whereby e昀케ciencies and win-win situations are
maximized.
The “win-win” formula alluded to—using the Lloydminster project
as an example—is that while the overhead costs of the participating
teams would be covered from the get-go, if it had gone over budget
any pro昀椀t would disappear. Instead, thanks to the collective expertise
and problem solving that went into the project, the 昀椀nal cost was
approximately $80-million or about $1.5 million below what was
budgeted. Meaning that half of that surplus goes back to the city with
the other half split between the remaining four partners.
So IPD’s collaborative, shared risk approach is a radical departure
from design bid build: whereby the owner issues an initial contract
with a design 昀椀rm and a second contract is issued to a contractor
which must then 昀椀nd a way to make the project work including
trying to meet the budget and completion targets set. Essentially
then painting the contractor into a corner in which historically, those
prescribed conditions frequently aren’t met. A construction process
which Wilner says often ends “mired in court cases and legal issues.”
In order to make the transition from an outdated lagoon facility, the
city decided to build to a state-of-the art MBR (Membrane Bioreactor)
treatment plant capable of removing ammonia, nitrogen and oil 昀氀ows
periodically entering the water from local businesses.
The use of MBR technology would also enable the city to produce
much cleaner wastewater due to the 昀椀ne membrane 昀椀ltration used to
remove smaller particles. The resulting e昀툀uent could then be suitable
for industrial reuse in applications like cooling systems or irrigation,
providing a source of income in the process.
The project was kickstarted in 2019 with an $81.5-million fourparty funding agreement between the governments of Canada,
Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the City of Lloydminster.
However, in hindsight, that 昀椀gure could have fallen short by
tens of millions of dollars had the project been tackled through
more conventional means. “I do believe if we would have delivered
this through standard procurement methods the 昀椀nal cost would
have been in the $90 to $100 million range,” observes Don Stang,
Lloydminster’s executive manager of operations.
In the end, the team tasked with constructing the facility by the
city comprised of ISL Engineering and Land Services Ltd. as the
consultant, Chandos/Bird joint venture as contractor, Veolia Water
Technologies and Solutions as the main equipment vendor, and
MagnaIV Engineering, the electrical, controls and systems integration
consultant.
Re昀氀ecting on that commitment, Wilner recalls, “When we put our
pro昀椀t at risk as a team (and) at the time we did the original validation
report as a team, we felt that we were about a million over that
number, but we felt con昀椀dent that there was lots of runway left and
we could make up the di昀昀erences as we went along.”
Getting onto the IPD runway
Stang is the 昀椀rst to admit that to deploy IPD, and realize the associated
cost savings, Lloydminster needed to ensure the process met speci昀椀c
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RENEW CANADA – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
Before takeoff
Kyle Strachan (P. Eng), Chandos Construction’s project director
for the Lloydminster plant says a key starting point in the IPD
process was early contractor engagement whereby the participating
companies were brought on board before any design work was done
to participate in the initial, validation phase.
“Validation focuses on three main things,” he observes.
“Determining what we’re going to build, that we can build it in this
amount of time, and we can agree that it’s going to cost this much. And
that validation process gets you to about 30 per cent design roughly.
And then we handed it over to the city council to sign o昀昀 on.”
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CHANDOS CONSTRUCTION
“The successful completion of the new wastewater treatment facility
under budget is a testament to the effectiveness of the integrated
project delivery model. It fostered a collaborative environment,
allowing us to consider all options, costs and associated risks carefully,
ensuring project certainty and a higher level of success.”
