West Yost served as the owner’s advisor of the City of Davis as the City implemented its first Design-Build (DB) project. In anticipation of increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, the project consisted of the design and construction of improvements to the wastewater facility’s secondary treatment system. The importance of this project – coupled with the fact that it will be the most expensive capital project in the City’s history – required West Yost to consider the appropriateness of the City-selected DB approach, particularly the ability to prescribe robust design and performance requirements.
West Yost’s services included:
- Conceptual project design services
- Coordination and support for SRF funding
- Implementation of multi-phase DB procurement
- Design and development of procurement documents (RFQ, RFP and Service Agreement)
- Evaluation of qualifications and proposal submittals from technical, financial, legal and organizational perspectives
- Negotiation of DB service agreement
- Recently completed contract oversight and project leadership during design and construction of the wastewater treatment facilities
The West Yost team developed a multi-stage DB procurement process that carefully balanced the City’s need for technical prescription and control, with the innovative flexibility desired by the DB team proposers. The resulting procurement process and documents contained design and performance requirements that were robust in some areas, yet flexible in others, allowing the City to be “prescriptive” only for those technical project elements that were of the highest importance, while giving the DB teams design and construction flexibility for the remaining components, thus creating efficiencies.
Notable Features of the Project
- Lump sum design build procurement
- Plant upgrade retrofits while maintaining plant operations
- ENVISION (Sustainability) Certification
Team Spotlight
Jeff Pelz, PE
Vice President, Chairman of the Board of Directors
Jeff Pelz, PE
Vice President, Chairman of the Board of Directors
“I enjoy digging in with clients to the point where I understand their needs and drivers, and then talking through an honest assessment of potential approaches to the project or problem at hand. Deciding what to do is as exciting for me as actually doing the work.
I feel a great sense of accomplishment in my roles as owner’s advisor on alternative delivery projects. Two of my assignments have been wastewater treatment plant projects (City of Davis Secondary and Tertiary Improvements Design-Build and City of Stockton RWCF Modifications Progressive Design-Build Project) where I’ve helped our clients negotiate and manage major design-build contracts. These and other similar assignments have provided me the privilege of working side-by-side with senior client managers and a team dedicated to achieving the best outcome on behalf of the public ratepayers. Working through the details of a design-build contract and then staying closely engaged through construction is incredibly rewarding.”
Lindsay Smith, PE
Program and Procurement Management Business Sector Leader, Vice President
Lindsay Smith, PE
Program and Procurement Management Business Sector Leader, Vice President
“I love working with our great team at West Yost to solve challenging projects in partnership with our clients. I get tremendous satisfaction seeing our clients implement projects that make a positive impact for their communities.
The Davis Woodland Water Supply Project is a special project for me. I began working on the project in 2007 and continue to serve the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency today. The project brought a sustainable surface water supply to the Cities of Davis and Woodland and UC Davis, which also happens to be the area where I live.”
Kathryn Gies, PE, ENV SP
Regulatory and Planning Practice Area Leader, Engineering Manager II
Kathryn Gies, PE, ENV SP
Regulatory and Planning Practice Area Leader, Engineering Manager II
“I really enjoy helping communities and supporting them to find effective solutions that ultimately protect the environment. I work guiding them through the early stages formulating the decisions and evaluating alternatives to help them find and select the optimum solutions and then move toward implementation. Helping them to provide clean water and reuse resources in an efficient way to protect water is so rewarding.
What I’m most proud of are the long term relationships I have with clients. Almost every single client I have now I have worked with since the moment I started at West Yost – over 20 years. So I feel like I am both part of their team and part of every one of their communities. I feel like part of their team and it is awesome and rewarding to be considered as a valuable part of each of their teams in managing their WW resources and making good decisions.”