WDBC E-NEWS – May 26, 2021

Navitas Joins WDBC as Advisor Member

The Water Design-Build Council is pleased to announce the addition of another new advisor member. Navitas is a collaborative, delivery focused, project development and construction firm specializing in making facilities and infrastructure more efficient and ensuring the results are real. They identify and implement solutions for infrastructure that improve the quality of financial and infrastructure assets for public and private sector clients. They work in collaboration with their clients to identify the issues they face and develop the best solutions for their unique circumstances; focusing on cutting waste, saving money, and addressing longstanding deficiencies. Their tagline represents their purpose: conserving resources and renewing infrastructure.

Representing Navitas is Dennis Clough, DBIA. Dennis is managing director for infrastructure solutions at Navitas. Dennis has over 25 years of experience in the energy and construction industry. He began his career as a program manager for the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. For the past 15 years he has led the collaborative project delivery of $200 million in projects for municipal utilities with a particular focus on wastewater treatment facilities with anaerobic digestion.

Joining us as an alternate representative is Bob Wimmer, PE. Bob is project director for infrastructure solutions at Navitas. Bob has more than 20 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry. He focuses on anaerobic digestion, co-digestion, biosolids, and nutrient removal as both a process designer, operator, and construction coordinator. For the past six years Bob has focused on collaborative delivery of water and wastewater projects for municipal and industrial clients.

We look forward to engaging with Navitas in our efforts to transform the water industry!

Six-Session Package of Online Education Begins Again in July - Registration Open Now

Due to the popularity of this course, the WDBC is repeating this package of sessions beginning in July 2021.

Join the WDBC for a six-session package of online education sessions designed for owners and practitioners in the water industry. Officials, managers, and engineering and O&M staff of public water/wastewater facilities who are looking to gain essential knowledge needed to procure and deliver design-build and CMAR projects should attend these classes.

Each session will include a review of the principles and best practices of collaborative delivery as well as the topic of the day:

July 22 : Deciding to Implement a Collaborative-Delivery Project
August 26: Risk Management
September 23: Contracts
October 28: Conducting the Procurement Process
November 18: Managing & Implementing Collaborative-Delivery Projects
December 16: Getting to Project Completion & Transition

All sessions will be conducted on Microsoft Teams from 10:00 - 1:30 p.m. MST (break 11:30 - 12:00 MST)

Package includes a hard copy and PDF of the 5th edition Water and Wastewater Design-Build Handbook. See registration page for single-session options.

To join one of the remaining sessions in the current series, please visit here.

For more information, please contact WDBC Business Operations Manager Bob Golden at 303.641.0550 or rgolden@waterdesignbuild.org.

Team Structure – What Does This Really Mean?

By Brian Walker, Vice President–Water Group, Clark Construction

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Legislative Corner

On May 13, Mark Alpert and Bob Golden of WDBC, along with Venn Strategies, met with senior staff of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) to discuss collaborative delivery and design-build in the context of federally funded water projects. Mark and Bob gave a brief history of federal programs supporting water infrastructure projects and how collaborative delivery can help bring projects online in a faster, more cost-effective manner. Mark, Bob, and the Venn team also discussed an amendment offered by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) to the “Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021,” which recently passed in the Senate. While the Blunt amendment was not adopted, WDBC took the time with EPW to walk through why this language was needed and answer questions and concerns.

WDBC and Venn will be following up with EPW on this issue, as well as continuing congressional outreach to educate members of Congress on the need for permissive collaborative-delivery language in water reauthorization legislation. If you have any questions, please contact Matt Pearce at mpearce@vennstrategies.com.

Member Companies

The Water Design-Build Council stands ready to contribute its expertise, resources, innovation, and enthusiasm to the challenge of strengthening our water and wastewater infrastructure.