When a global manufacturer of carbon fiber products announced plans to invest $1 billion in building a manufacturing plant on a 400-acre greenfield site in Moore, South Carolina, it quickly became apparent that PDB was the best model to achieve the “must haves” for project delivery.
An important condition of the agreement was that the local sanitary sewer district would receive and treat all wastewater generated by the facility with minimal to no pretreatment required. The schedule for the industrial facility’s discharge to the treatment facility was extremely aggressive, and the industrial wastewater flow would impact the hydraulic and process capacities of the treatment facility. So the district set two primary goals of maintaining compliance at the treatment facility and upholding the schedule for receiving the production wastewater. Following an extensive selection process, the Haskell/Brown and Caldwell team was chosen to deliver this essential infrastructure project.
Industrial Buildout and Capacity Increases Dictate Improvement and Expansion
To handle the anticipated industrial flows—including a 100% increase in average daily flow to a small rural treatment plant within a short time frame—the stakeholders determined that an improved and expanded facility was required. Selecting a collaborative delivery method would allow effective management of key drivers and risks associated with the project. The PDB model also offered a flexible project delivery approach that could rapidly and effectively respond to changing project information and design circumstances and the opportunity for a significant level of collaboration within the entire project team.
PDB Solution Creates Value and Ensures the Viability of Future Projects
The PDB delivery method gave stakeholders the ability to successfully execute a complex project on a fast-track schedule while protecting local water resources and supporting the local manufacturing industry. The high level of collaboration during design allowed the owner and design-builder to evaluate multiple alternative approaches at each step during design development and to also factor cost, schedule, constructability, and risk into every decision. The outcome was a treatment solution and refined project scope that resulted in a 50% reduction in upfront capital infrastructure requirements—an approximate savings of $20 million. The shared savings generated during the construction phase by the PDB process allowed the owner to develop a second capital improvement project.