Pipeline Construction Management - Pitfalls, Contract Traps and Conflicts: How to Recognize and Avoid Them

Contra Costa Water District has 4,170,000 feet of pipe in the treated water distribution system and 440,000 feet of pipe in the raw water piping system. The District has had a comprehensive Pipeline Renewal and Replacement Program to renew or replace aged, corroded, and undersized pipes since 1996. Typically, the District is able to replace over 10,000 linear feet (almost 2 miles) of water mains per fiscal year. The District uses a combination of contract delivery methods for pipeline replacement, depending on the type of the contract used and the timeframe for delivery and installation. This paper address the following key issues: (1) conflicts with other utilities - methods of identifying utility conflicts ahead of bid time and how to deal with unexpected utilities encountered in the field during construction, (2) pipeline pricing - unit pricing per foot installed or the lump sum method, pros and cons of each, and when to use each method to your best advantage, (3) pavement thickness and type - what to do with pavement variances encountered in the field, how to address it in the bid, and methods of restoration scenarios, (4) traffic control and flow - how to deal with rush hour traffic, residential and business access and impacts as well as how to coordinate work with other agencies, (5) change order and claim negotiation - steps for successful change order negotiation on pipeline contracts and proper documentation for pricing, (6) community outreach and coordination - how to deal with customer outages, how to handle customer complaints, and how to maintain customer satisfaction, and (7) value engineering in the field - flexibility and how to deal with changes, how to keep the work going, and how to control pricing and schedule. Careful consideration of these issues has resulted in an informed approach to the administration of pipeline construction contracts. This has in turn resulted in a reduction in administrative costs associated with pipeline replacement that has been successfully benchmarked through collection of annual data.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0784408548
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Warriner, Michael R
  • Bartley, Yolanda E
• Conference:
  • Pipelines 2006: Service to the Owner
  • Location: Chicago IL, United States
  • Date: 2006-7-30 to 2006-8-2
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Pagination: 8p
• Monograph Title: Pipelines 2006: Service to the Owner, July 30 to August 2, 2006, Chicago, Illinois. Proceedings of the Pipeline Division Specialty Conference

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conflict management; Construction management; Contracts; Coordination; Customer satisfaction; Outreach; Pavements; Peak hour traffic; Pipelines; Pricing; Public utilities; Scheduling; Traffic control; Traffic flow; Water distribution structures
• Uncontrolled Terms: Change orders; Pipeline replacement
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Construction; Operations and Traffic Management; Pavements; Pipelines; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01082669
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0784408548
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 18 2007 11:31AM