IMC-2018 Learning Session 44:43

by Tad Cogan, Denver Water

Denver Water's ten-year capital plan encompasses the replacement and refurbishment of numerous assets within our vast infrastructure with expenditures forecasted to exceed 1.8 billion dollars. Within this scope will be the North Renewal System Project. Denver Water's North System was constructed in the 1930s, when the surrounding area was mostly farmland. Now, 80 years later, the North System is reaching the end of its lifespan. To emphasize resiliency and adaptability, a state of the art water treatment plant is being built for our changing demands now and well into the future. 

To ensure that Denver Water aligns it's capital planning to the organizational objectives of being fiscally responsible and ensuring excellent operations, a series of continuous improvement events (2Ps) were held early within the design phase for designing process spaces to meet project goals regarding modularity, accessibility, and maintainability that accommodates efficient, safe and environmentally compliant O&M workflow. Throughout the events, emphasis was given to safety and environmental impact potentials, operator driven reliability to diagnosis failure modes, proper staging areas and access points for equipment maintainability, MTTR, and ease of operation. Through the first three events that encompassed the Headworks, Flocculation/Sedimentation, and Filtration buildings, an estimated 1.5 million dollars was saved through the reduction of un-needed square footage, excessive redundancy, and adhering to needs vs. wants while aligning to specific elements within the Uptime Element framework. The presentation takes an in-depth look at how the use of the continuous improvement 2P (Preparation and Process) events utilized a cross-disciplinary team of experts to ensure that the design of the North Treatment Plant aligned within the elements of safety, reliability, maintainability and operability.