Ames Water Treatment Plant

Portions of the City of Ames’ existing conventional lime-softening water treatment plant were originally constructed in 1927. Significant expansions and modifications were made to the facility in 1931, 1962, 1971 and 1988. Following an Infrastructure and Capacity Needs Assessment to determine the long-range future of the water treatment plant, five new design alternatives were generated that could meet peak daily water demands of 15 million gallons per day. The City of Ames selected option 2–the construction of a new lime-softening plant at a new location–and retained Benesch to perform a value engineering study of the concept design.

The goal of the VE Study was to review the concept design and to provide validation for the decisions made in developing the concept. The team was also tasked with considering other ideas that might challenge constraints placed on the design and/or that might provide a similar level of service at a lower cost.

In all, VE Team developed over 230 ideas that could potentially enhance the value of the project. The initial ideas were then screened and refined into 18 proposals and 29 design suggestions. The resulting modifications reduced the overall project costs from $67 million to $58 million, or a savings of approximately 10% of the project costs. Critical to the study’s success was implementing Benesch’s Total Quality Engineering Methodology during the process, as well as involving and achieving buy-in from over a dozen city employees as part of the VE team.