Brentwood Water Treatment Plant

Just before construction began on the new 16 MGD water treatment plant, the Contra Costa Water District said they hoped Monterey Mechanical could pull a rabbit out of the hat and substantially complete the project ahead of schedule, which would be an extraordinary achievement considering the agreed-upon budget and schedule.

Monterey Mechanical stepped up to the plate enthusiastically stating that all efforts would be made to deliver the project early despite the already challenging schedule to meet the water needs of the City before the peak demand period. We revised the construction approach and partnered closely with the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD), the City of Brentwood, design firm Camp Dresser & McKee, Central Sierra Electric, Meyers Controls, and Vali Cooper and Associates. We implemented collaborative problem solving and addressed issues without blame or finger-pointing.

The client got their wish with an outstanding project delivered four months early with no change in scope or budget. A number of innovative solutions were successfully implemented by Monterey Mechanical. To eliminate wasting water produced by the plant during the initial testing phase, we initiated a test procedure that allowed the water to be recirculated through the plant prior to releasing it to the treated water storage tank. This allowed the plant to meet stringent testing requirements using one batch of water and sending that water into the City’s drinking water system, which eliminated all wasting of water during testing. We also proposed an innovative piping system for the chemical injection system that was adopted by the design engineer and resulted in a low-maintenance and leak-free system.

The Director of Public Works and Assistant City Engineer, said, “It is certainly a true example of Excellence in Partnering.” CCWD’s Dan Owre said, “We are extremely pleased with the results of this partnership and look forward to using it as a benchmark to measure the success of future projects.”

Representatives from both the CCWD and the City of Brentwood stated the project was one of the best they had ever been involved with. They said the partnership set lofty goals and achieved them all, and that enhancements requested by plant operations staff were incorporated cooperatively and efficiently with a low change order rate of less than 1%. (The industry average for projects of similar magnitude is between 6% and 8%.)