SAN ANTONIO WATER SYSTEM DOS RIOS SCUM PUMP REPLACEMENT

CLIENT: S&GE

PROJECT SUMMARY

The client for this project engaged our team to estimate the construction cost and identify any constructability issues we found in the contract documents at the 90% design phase. This project’s scope included replacing two submersible scum pumps and all associated appurtenances inside the scum pump stations at the chlorine contact basin. The plan was to rehab the electrical and instrumentation systems for both pump stations given the existing condition of both local panels. The contractor was also to change out a sluice gate and remove some of the mechanical equipment in the basins that were no longer needed.


In our review, we determined that it would be more cost effective for the client to remove and replace the discharge pipeline that was originally to be blasted and recoated due to the effort it would take to sandblast in the area where the pipeline was originally installed. There would have been a considerable amount of set-up and additional costs to protect everything around the pipeline. By changing the approach and rehabilitation method for this pipeline, we were able to save on the overall construction budget.


During our site visit, we traced back some of the conduits that the contractor was assumed to replace and identified those for clarity on the drawings, thereby saving valuable management time by reducing RFI’s (which require a review to determine if the RFI is justifiable and then a response). Typically there is some back and forth during that process, which again equates to additional money and management time wasted on simple RFI’s or issues that could have been resolved in the design phase.