Jacobs and PCL win $1 billion job to upgrade San Francisco's largest sewage plant while it runs
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission picked Jacobs and PCL Construction, working as a joint venture, as progressive design-build contractor for nitrogen removal at the Southeast Treatment Plant, a facility that cleans almost 80% of the city's sewage. The utility puts the project at about $1 billion.
The Southeast plant is the biggest of the city's wastewater facilities. The work adds advanced treatment so the plant sends less nitrogen into San Francisco Bay, total inorganic nitrogen in particular, Jacobs said in its Oct. 28 announcement. Stephen Robinson, the utility's assistant general manager for infrastructure, said the new treatment is designed to satisfy the latest state and federal requirements.
Sequencing is the hard part. Robinson said the project will remake the core of the plant while it keeps treating 80% of the city's flow, so it cannot be taken offline for the job. Both firms have done large wastewater work for the utility before. Jacobs counts over 150 design-build jobs, among them upgrades of the San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility plus the Donald C. Tillman plant in Los Angeles, Construction Dive reported.
Under progressive design-build, the builder comes on while design is still open and the price is set in steps as drawings mature. Neither announcement gave a first-phase contract value, a start date or a finish date. Jacobs also agreed to put money into community health, education and job training through the utility's Social Impact Partnership program.
Why it matters: Progressive design-build releases trade packages in stages, so subs in process mechanical, electrical and concrete should get on the joint venture's lists early. On a plant that never shuts down, price staged tie-ins and bypass pumping into every bid.
Sources
- Jacobs to deliver $1 billion San Francisco wastewater upgrade through joint ventureBusiness Wire (via Stock Titan), Oct 28
- Jacobs-PCL JV wins $1B San Francisco wastewater upgradeConstruction Dive, Oct 28