The P3 Water Summit
Elizabeth Cousins and Nancy Smith were guest speakers for this year's P3 Water Summit. This virtual summit examined how alternative project delivery methods are being used to advance critical water projects of all sizes across the country. Presenters explored innovative approaches in project design, build, risk, financing and O&M that offer communities new ways to meet complex water, wastewater and stormwater challenges.
On April 21 and April 22, 2021, Elizabeth Cousins was a panelist for "Early Contractor Involvement - Opportunities and Challenges for Water Projects, Parts 1 and 2." Early Contractor Involvement Models such as Construction Manager at Risk, Progressive Design-Build / P3s and Pre-Development Agreements (ECI) are gaining traction in the water industry due to growing risk concerns in fixed-price contacts. The ECI approach facilitates earlier developer / design-builder involvement in project development. This two-part session focused on ECI procurements including the pros and cons, the procurement process, considerations during the design period and how the collaboration of this approach can potentially solve complicated project issues in a manner unlike other approaches.
On April 23, 2021, Nancy Smith was a featured panelist for "Faster and Better Delivery of Green Stormwater Infrastructure through Alternative Methods." Municipalities and districts across the nation are being required through municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permits to install significant amounts of green stormwater infrastructure to address impacts from urban runoff on receiving water quality and hydrologic impacts. In many cases, these permits include short compliance time frames for project design and construction. This session discussed faster and more cost-effective methods for procuring and delivering green stormwater infrastructure projects that provide a degree of schedule acceleration and cost surety.
