Dealing With Real Security Issues During Bidding:How To Stop A Terrorist From Buying Your Construction Documents For $400

摘要

The City of North Miami Beach (City) currently owns and operates the Norwood-Oeffler WaterrnTreatment Plant (WTP). The City has implemented a Water Expansion Program that wouldrnexpand and improve the City’s water system to provide an additional 17.0 million gallons per dayrn(MGD) of capacity that will allow almost complete independence from bulk purchases of potablernwater from Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD), and improve the quality ofrnwater that would be delivered to their customers. The Water Expansion Program as outlined byrnthe City includes initial phase improvements to provide a total production capacity of 32.0 MGD.rnThe first phase of the improvement program will move the City closer to independence from thernMiami-Dade WASD, and will utilize membrane technology to treat Biscayne Aquifer and FloridanrnAquifer source waters with nanofiltration (NF) and low pressure reverse osmosis (RO),rnrespectively.rnSince September 11, 2001, water utilities across the nation have been implementing improvedrnwater security plans, and performing vulnerability assessments to secure the integrity of theirrnwater treatment and distribution systems. The City of North Miami Beach has incorporated thernresults and recommendations of such reviews in the design of their Water Expansion Program.rnHowever, as the City approached bidding their large scale project, they were faced with a limitedrnamount of published information available relative to securing construction documents during thernbidding process. Therefore, this paper will present a summary of the City’s findings relative to thernexperience of other utilities securing construction documents during the bidding process, arnsummary of the protocol that the City of North Miami Beach adopted for their bidding process, arnreview of plan room practices relative to securing plan room document sets, and a review of otherrnconsiderations that utilities should evaluate prior to bidding large scale projects, especially whenrnthe bidding documents include the security system design.