Navigating the Successful Startup of a 260 MGD Headworks While Maintaining Plant Operations

Presentation Description: The City of San José procured a design/builder that could collaboratively develop innovative technical solutions for a new 260-MGD headworks at their Regional Wastewater Facility. The facility is one of the largest effluent recycling facilities on the West Coast and has aged infrastructure that needs replacement. The city needed to replace one of the existing headworks facilities at the plant site. The City of San José used the progressive design build delivery method for multiple reasons of which one driver was to transfer the risk of the performance of the facility through the development of performance guarantees. The project team included multiple city departments, a program manager, an owner’s advisor, and the design/builder. It was imperative that the new headworks facility ease the operator’s ability to transfer flows from the four separate locations that influent flow comes into the existing two headworks facilities. To achieve the simplified operations, the team aligned closely with the operations staff to understand the existing challenges, incorporate their requests, and develop performance guarantees. The team collaborated early in the design phase to revise the concept design to align around a solution that provided an entirely new headworks that simplified the operations. This close collaboration remained consistent through start-up and testing. This presentation will show how, when startup of this new facility did not go as planned, the team was able to work closely with the plant operations staff to troubleshoot while testing with wastewater. The specific performance guarantees that were developed and how they were developed will also be presented. The training and startup process will also be presented.