Transforming the water industry by advancing successful
collaborative delivery through education, research, and advocacy
WATER COLLABORATIVE DELIVERY NEWS
March 9, 2022
Issue Highlights
Meet Karen Pallansch, PE, BCEE, WCDA Director at-Large
Are You Ready to Schedule an Education Session?
Blog Feature - Do You Really Want to Contract with the Greater Fool?
Legislative Corner - WCDA on Capitol Hill
Meet WCDA's Newest Director at-Large, Karen Pallansch, PE, BCEE
Karen Pallansch has over 30 years of experience in the water industry, having started her water career at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality as a senior environmental engineer. For the past 26 years, Karen has worked at Alexandria Renew Enterprises (AlexRenew), a regional water resource recovery facility serving the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and parts of Fairfax
County. Since October 2005, she has served as its general manager and chief executive officer.
Throughout her career, Karen has worked to highlight diversity in the water sector, enabling strong workforce development, and giving back to the water sector in various leadership roles. Karen developed the Women’s Water Network with the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) one of the first networking spaces in water with a focus on women and diversity. To support the water workforce of the future, she oversaw the creation of the AlexRenew apprentice program to develop the trades skills needed at AlexRenew and formed partnerships with local organizations to provide internships to underserved high school students.
Karen has held board roles for a number of local and national organizations, including the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and Water Environment Federation. She currently serves on the board of the international NGO ROCKBlue and is the treasurer of the WateReuse Association. She has published or presented more than 50 educational papers and talks and received multiple awards for public service and innovation.
The Water Collaborative Delivery Association is honored to have her join our board of directors and share her valuable expertise to help us transform the water industry.
WCDA Now Scheduling In-Person Education Sessions
With updated modules reflecting the latest and greatest best practices, the Water Collaborative Delivery Association is excited to get back in the classroom with officials, managers, engineering and O&M staff of public water/wastewater facilities, and others who are looking to gain the fundamental knowledge needed to procure and deliver collaborative delivery projects.
Not ready to meet in person but still want to gain this valuable insight? Live online sessions are also available.
Session topics include:
Deciding to Implement a Collaborative Delivery Project
Principles and Best Practices of Collaborative Delivery
Risk Management and Contracts
Conducting the Procurement Process
Managing and Implementing Collaborative Delivery Projects
Getting to Project Completion and Transition
For more information or to schedule a session, please contact WCDA Business Operations Manager Bob Golden at rgolden@watercollaborativedelivery.org or 303-641-0550.
One of my typical roles as an owner advisor is to review proposed construction management at-risk (CMAR) and design-build contracts from a commercial perspective—i.e., what’s the likely marketplace reaction to the contract and is the contract consistent with the philosophy behind collaborative delivery? I am continually amazed by what I see. For example, on two of my current public design-build projects, the RFP versions of the contracts:
Made design-builders responsible for consequential damages
Gave very limited rights for time and cost relief for events beyond the design-builder’s reasonable control
Made the design-builder responsible for not only managing the performance of the owner’s other prime contractors, but for their delays in performance
Obligated the design-builder to a far-reaching and uninsurable indemnity
Provided that all disputes would be fully and finally resolved by the owner’s chief engineer, with limited appeal rights
When I pointed out my concerns to the project’s legal team, the reaction was one that I have heard for years: “Yeah, whatever. Let’s see how the marketplace responds. They can price the risk in their proposal.”
WCDA members have been very active on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, meeting with key members of Congress sitting on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The goal of these meetings is to socialize the benefits of collaborative delivery (CD) for water infrastructure projects funded with federal monies and ask Congress to pass permissive federal CD language. In the last few weeks, WCDA members have met with the offices of House T&I members Chris Pappas (D-NH-1), Brian Mast (R-FL-18), and Mike Bost (R-IL-12) about the need for Congress to act on this issue. Each of the meetings have been very productive, and WCDA members have heard from Rep. Pappas's office that the Congressman requested that permissive CD language be included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2022 that the House T&I Committee is currently working on.
Over the next few weeks, we are hopeful to have more exciting news to share about WCDA's federal advocacy efforts! If you would like to get involved with WCDA's federal policy efforts, please contact our government affairs consultants at Venn Strategies by emailing Matt Pearce (mpearce@vennstrategies.com) or Doug MacGillivray (dmacgillivray@vennstrategies.com) to get involved.
5th Edition of the Water and Wastewater Design-Build Handbook
Learn the Best Practices on Collaborative Delivery Methods for Water and Wastewater Projects
Member Companies
The Water Collaborative Delivery Association provides industry members with the knowledge, tools, and proven approaches to collaborate and innovate effectively, lead change, and deliver Better Projects, Together.
