Lake Tawakoni Water Supply Project,Critical Path Issues and Lessons Learned:Fast-Tracking a $100 million Water Transmission Project

摘要

Since its formation in 1951, the North Texas Municipal Water District hasrnbeen charged with developing a reliable water supply source for its 13 member citiesrnand 46 other customers (some direct and some indirect), including more than 1.5rnmillion people in portions of north Texas including portions of Collin, Dallas,rnDenton, and Kaufman Counties and all of Rockwall County. Recent long-rangernwater supply planning efforts have identified significant increases in water demandsrnthat must be met through a corresponding increase in available raw water supply.rnCompounding the need for raw water is the fact that the North Texas region isrncurrently in the second year of a drought that is the worst on record since the 1950s,rnwith the District's primary water supply reservoir, Lake Lavon, falling some 17 feetrnin water surface elevation since mid-2005.rnIn an effort to supplement available supplies, the District contracted forrn50,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Sabine River Authority in LakernTawakoni, located approximately 45 miles east of Dallas in October 2005. Givenrncurrent drought conditions and ominous rainfall forecasts, the District has requestedrnthat the infrastructure needed to transfer this water from Lake Tawakoni to LakernLavon be in service no later than October 1, 2007, to prevent further water restrictionsrnand possible water rationing. The infrastructure needed includes approximately 30rnmiles of 54 and 60-inch-diameter transmission pipeline and two pump stations, eachrnwith a raw water pumping capacity of 75 MGD. The estimated project cost is $100rnmillion. Critical path issues for meeting the highly accelerated schedule includernoverall project team coordination; route selection; environmental permittingrnconsiderations; easement and property acquisition; power supply; equipment delivery;rnand construction of multiple project components simultaneously. The focus of thisrnpaper is to discuss the critical path issues and offer lessons learned from fast-trackingrnthe design and construction of a multi-million dollar water transmission project.