CWA approves consultant services contract for flow control facilities

The San Diego County Water Authority board voted October 24 to amend the professional services contract with DBE Psomas to complete the design and provide engineering services during the bidding, construction, start-up, commissioning, and closeout of the Fallbrook 3, Rainbow 1, Fallbrook 6, De Luz 1, and De Luz 2 flow control facilities.

The change increases the contract amount from $352,500 to $758,500. The additional $406,000 was derived from the County Water Authority’s Fiscal Year 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 capital improvement program appropriations.

The Fallbrook 3 and Rainbow 1 flow control facilities were constructed in 1955 and now require substantial maintenance due to their age.

In February 2000 the CWA board approved a contract to develop a design for the new Fallbrook 3 and Rainbow 1 facilities to be housed in a single building.

The Fallbrook 6, De Luz 1, and De Luz 2 turnouts do not currently have flow control valves to regulate flows.

Existing flow meters provided by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) enable flows at the sites to be measured, but because of the lack of flow control valves MWD imposes a surcharge upon the CWA when flow drops below ten percent of the rated flow meter capacity.

As of July, the surcharges imposed since December 1992 have totaled $255,095. In April 1999 the CWA board approved a contract with Daniel Boyle Engineering, which has since become DBE Psomas, to develop designs for the Fallbrook and De Luz facilities to be housed in separate buildings on two separate project sites.

After CWA staff assessed when the projects would be completed within the capital improvement program’s prioritization guidelines, the construction schedule was delayed until 2011. In June 2006 the projects were assigned to Jacobs Engineering to complete the designs and construct the facilities.

Jacobs Engineering updated the project budgets and assessed the best approach before recommending to the CWA that the projects be consolidated into a single construction contract.

The Jacobs recommendation to consolidate the contracts would not only provide for economies of scale but also accelerate the schedule to allow the projects to be completed in 2009.

Due to the period of time since the most recent designs were completed, in May Jacobs Engineering coordinated a review of the designs.

The CWA’s specifications have changed since the last design assessment, as have various structural and seismic codes. The additional $406,000 covers the cost of the design enhancements to reflect the recent changes in circumstance.