The Town of Drayton Valley needed an updated raw water pump station. They were looking for an innovative and collaborative design that would function effectively, with limited maintenance and allow for future expansion.
“The town's existing raw water pump station was ready to fail at any time,” said Aleksi Makila, project director at Chandos. “If it failed, the town would have no means of getting clean water.” Leveraging our joint-venture experience with Bird Construction, we pursued this project confident that the chosen integrated project delivery (IPD) method would be the ideal option for this scope of work.
The IPD team came up with four potential solutions to get water from the North Saskatchewan River up to Drayton Valley’s water treatment plant. They decided on the final by using a ‘choosing by advantages’ method. It weighs the different options against the owner’s values to determine the best solution. The ultimate decision was to install three, 200 horsepower, down-hole well pumps. This solution allowed the system to function with minimal operator maintenance, efficient system design, and low impact to the surrounding area and banks of the North Saskatchewan River.
During construction, the team came up against several challenges including a problematic pumping location, defective pumps, and managing different relationships and partnerships. But, since everyone was engaged from the get-go, they were able to overcome challenges together, and ultimately, come up with solutions in the best interest of the client.
Through collaboration and the efficiencies of IPD, Drayton Valley’s raw water pump station was completed almost $1 million under budget. The success of this project resulted in the town procuring other construction projects using IPD.
Read more about the project challenges and solutions in our case study.