Gilbert - Chandler Santan Vista WTP Phase II

The town and city takes safety seriously and made certain it would be a focus for the project. Every meeting, from the start of design through finish of construction, began with safety-related tips. During the design process, Black & Veatch utilized building information modeling (BIM) 3D modeling and Sundt’s 3D laser scanning of the existing facility to virtually create the existing and new spaces to better interact with the town and city’s engineering, operations and maintenance personnel. The tool helped users discuss safer means of access to multiple existing and expanded portions of the facility both during and after the construction. The models and scans assisted in helping the team identify potential risks and avoid unintended plant shutdowns. 

“The BIM 3D models were extremely useful during the design and construction process.  We merged the laser scan data with the BIM models to help the entire team virtually walk through project expansion in the conference room before ground was broken,” Caruso said. “It also allowed us to speed up the design process and produce the necessary technical memoranda and drawings in an understandable format, which sped up design review to meet the aggressive 12-month design and 18-month construction schedule.”

The need to maintain an open collaboration and communication between all team members was heightened due to the need to not only maintain the town’s existing facility operations and distribution system supply to multiple pressure zones, but also ensure potable water needs are met for the city of Chandler.

At the end of the day, the existing co-owned Gilbert-Chandler Santan Vista Water Treatment Plant was successfully expanded from 16,666 gal per minute (gpm) to 33,332 gpm while saving both municipalities approximately $15 million, or nearly 20% in program costs. At substantial completion, the relatively conservative owner’s contingency still had more than 50% of funds available.

The Gilbert project manager noted that as items were identified, all parties—Gilbert, Chandler, Black & Veatch (engineer), Sundt Construction (contractor), and their subconsultants and subcontractors—continued to work together as a team and maintained positive working relationships to the very end. In addition, she noted a number of people working on the project with multiple entities were given additional responsibilities and ultimately were promoted, which can be attributed to the project’s success. This project is one of which everyone involved can be proud.

“I’m extremely pleased with the result. The facility was master-planned for this expansion and, now that it is completed, everything ‘fits’ as if it had always been there,” Caruso said. “The relationships the team established throughout the process will definitely continue well into the future.