Your First Instincts Are Usually Right: The Town of Gilbert Returns to CMAR to Construct a High-Profile Force Main/Gravity Sewer Project

Abstract

The Town of Gilbert, AZ decided to construct the Gilbert Road Force Main and Gravity Sewer (Gilbert FM/GS) to provide flexibility to transfer wastewater from one sewershed to another sewershed to utilize the full treatment capacity of their Neely Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) and delay expansion of the Greenfield WRF. The project included the installation of 15,500 LF of 12-inch ductile iron force main and 4,900 LF of 24-inch polyvinyl chloride gravity sewer with a budget of $7.0 million. Gilbert has used the alternative project delivery modes of Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) and Design-Build (DB) to construct most of their water and wastewater projects as they provide (1) the means to select the best qualified contractor, and (2) control and flexibility over the work process to meet unforeseen project challenges. CMAR was the delivery mode selected by Gilbert when the project was initiated in early 2008. As the economic downturn worsened and bid prices became extremely competitive, Gilbert’s senior management decided to require all of the Town’s capital improvement projects to be executed using traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB). It became obvious at the 30% design level that the project carried a significant amount of risk and it may be beneficial to return to CMAR. The risk issues included: • Gilbert Road, which was the best alignment for the pipelines, was a major north-south arterial with high traffic counts and numerous utilities • This was a highly visible project to all levels of the Town’s government as the