Around 2009, Denver Water’s capital plan was full of upcoming work. Large projects, such as the expansion of the crude tank, the northern water treatment plant and the replacement of lead pipes, threatened to overwhelm the company’s engineering department.
To help manage the influx of work, Denver Water’s director of engineering, Robert “Bob” J. Mahoney, and his team began putting together a comprehensive capital project procedures manual, which laid out the various workflows, templates and everything else needed to manage a project from cradle to grave. They also updated Denver Water’s engineering standards and launched new Capital Project Construction Standards (CPCS) and CAD standards. In addition, they published everything online to make the documents available to staff, as well as contractors, consultants and anyone else who might need them.
The main goal was to set a minimum threshold for efficiency, and the standards have done that, Mahoney says. But they also led to greater consistency among projects, including private development in Denver Water’s service area. With the fourth edition of the CPCS, first published in 2021, they also decided to include all technical content, including specifications and standard details, for ease of use.
Having the standards out there means that when Denver Water comes out for design work, they only need project-specific information and can reference their standards for the rest. In one example Mahoney gave, the standards helped eliminate 14 design drawings for a vault project. This reduced costs and also helped ensure quality and minimize change orders.
“Engineers can do more projects because they’re not dealing with as much noise,” Mahoney says.
The benefits extend beyond Denver Water’s jurisdiction. Its standards have been used by most of Colorado’s smaller water utilities that don’t have the same endowment or budget as Denver Water, says Katie Ross, the company’s engineering manager. And users have lowered the standards in nearly every state and about two dozen countries.
Since they started putting all the specifications online, contractors who provide work for Denver Water don’t have to worry about the preferences of different engineers that vary from project to project. That has helped tighten the range of bids, often with three or four companies bidding within a couple of percent of each other, Mahoney says. Additionally, keeping all members of a project team on the same page in terms of expectations is in keeping with the level of collaboration that Denver Water establishes on its projects.
“Bob is a guy who is totally committed,” says Chris Loeffler, Kiewit Corp. project manager. on Denver Water’s $531 million gross reservoir expansion. “He’s all about partnerships.”
Denver Water engineers update the CPCS monthly and are preparing to release its fifth edition, which will include additions on roller compacted concrete, electrical specifications related to hydroelectric units, and unbraced service line specifications.
“We’re working very hard to put all of the lead replacement program information into our specifications, because that’s what other cities will be using,” Mahoney says.
Making all these updates is a collaborative effort. Ross tracked down specifications and design drawings from about 18 subject matter experts. They also work with water agencies in other major cities, manufacturers and others.
“So at no point does this document become a relic or something that engineers will no longer trust,” says Ross.
