Education Programs
Empowering the industry with essential knowledge.
Our education sessions are designed to empower owners, government officials, and practitioners with proven best practices for planning, procuring, delivering, and managing collaborative delivery projects in the water and wastewater sector. Taught by some of the nation’s leading water design-build and CMAR experts, our industry-aligned experiential workshops blend essential knowledge with practical application to ensure that attendees leave prepared to collaborate successfully, lead change, and achieve successful project outcomes.
Upcoming New Webinar Course:
FUNDAMENTALS OF COLLABORATIVE DELIVERY (New 6th Edition Handbook Version)
*Seven 60-90-minute sessions every other Tuesday starting April 4, 2023
$450/person
Join the WCDA for a multi-session series on collaborative delivery fundamentals, following the chapters of the newly revised Water and Wastewater Collaborative Delivery Handbook, 6th edition.
In-Person Courses:
Flexible Session Formats
Our education sessions are offered across North America in a range of flexible formats, including in person and online. We come to you at a facility of your choice.
- In person: One-day program (8 hours) or two-day program (12 hours)
- Virtual: 12 hours total within a 30-day window
–Option A: Four 3-hour blocks
–Option B: Three 4-hour blocks
Session Topics
Two Tracks:
1. Fundamentals of Collaborative Delivery
This series integrates content from our new 6th edition Water and Wastewater Collaborative Delivery Handbook with specific needs and interests identified from our research with utility/agency decision makers and project, procurement, legal, and operations managers whose goal is to deliver successful collaborative delivery projects. All participants receive the handbook as part of the curriculum along with other pertinent materials.
Is Collaborative Delivery Right for Your Project?
Provides overall guidance to owner organizations and practitioners on what is required to build internal understanding and consensus about a project’s goals, priorities, and drivers. Steps that owners can take to prepare their organizations for project implementation are presented, including an exercise in determining critical project priorities and an introduction to developing a project implementation plan.
Making Sense of Collaborative Delivery Options
Describes the relationships of the various collaborative delivery methods—construction management at-risk, progressive design-build, and fixed-price design-build—defining the differences among them, as well their advantages and distinctions.
Understanding and Allocating Risks
Addresses the fundamental difference in risk allocation for design-build and risk assignments that are typical for water and wastewater projects for each collaborative delivery method.
Understanding Contracts
Presents key contract commercial concepts that overlap traditional construction practice, but are implemented in a new way for collaborative delivery. Also covers contractual concepts and business practice definitions that are unique to collaborative delivery contracts.
Emphasizing the Importance of O&M Engagement
Reenforces the need and timing for O&M participation in collaborative delivery, including the concept of acceptance testing for design-build projects.
Preparing and Supporting a Project for Procurement
Addresses the strategic steps that owners should use to prepare in advance of a collaborative delivery procurement. Special emphasis is provided on the roles and responsibilities of an owner advisor and how one is procured.
Implementing a Best-Value Procurement Process
Describes the various procurement processes and timelines for each collaborative delivery method with emphasis on the meaning of best value.
2. Implementation Course Preview – Phase 1
Featuring all new curriculum for owners about to embark on a CMAR or design-build project, this series is for leaders, engineering, and O&M staff of public water/wastewater facilities who are looking to gain insight into implementing collaborative delivery projects after the procurement stage. Practitioners are also welcome to attend. These topics are a preview sampling of WCDA’s full Implementation Course coming in 2023, highlighting key activities from contract execution to transition to construction.
- Setting the Tone and Scope for a Successful Project
- Establishing a Cost Model (Cost Estimate Format)
- Assessing and Verifying Cost and Proposed Contingency
- Evaluating Early Work Package Proposals
- Agreeing on the Guaranteed Contract Price Proposal
- Transitioning to Construction
Who Should Attend?
- City and county officials, managers, and staff of municipal, private, and governmental water/wastewater facilities
- Water/wastewater industry practitioners
Session Instructors
Our instructors are industry experts with first-hand knowledge and experience in successfully accomplishing collaborative delivery water infrastructure projects.
- WCDA Executive Director Mark E. Alpert, PE, FDBIA
- WCDA Assistant Director | Education Director Leofwin Clark
Cost and Arrangements
Contact WCDA Business Operations Manager Bob Golden, CAE, RCE
Mobile: 303-641-0550
“As both a contractor and an engineer, I learned a tremendous amount at the design-build SRF education workshop. My only hope is that eventually all of our municipal clients would sit through this course. Project delivery should be a win for the customer, the engineer, and the contractor and I truly believe that qualifications-based selection, versus ‘low bid,’ ensures that this happens.”
Spencer Tuell, PE
President, Gulf Coast Underground, LLC