From Proposal to Commissioning: Where Water Projects Most Commonly Go Sideways

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Delays and cost overruns are quite common when it comes to major projects, and water treatment systems are certainly no exception. Building a water treatment system requires coordination of many stakeholders over a period of months or years, so it’s almost certain that a project will encounter some hiccups along the way. The good news is that many of the issues that arise in building water treatment systems are actually avoidable– it just takes good planning, communication, and attention to technical specifications.

Overview of Project Phases

To build a water treatment system, a project team will need to navigate through several complex phases. Exactly how project tasks are organized will vary from one project to the next, but water treatment projects will usually begin with one or more Planning Phases. These early parts of the project are known by many names, like project initiation, definition or scoping, but collectively, the goal of project planning is to establish the framework of the project by defining objectives, determining a schedule and budget, and documenting project management policies for handling things like change control and stakeholder approvals. Also taking place early in the project are Design and Engineering Phases, during which technical experts such as engineers, architects, and water treatment professionals come together to develop a solution to meet project objectives. Design activities usually result in deliverables like building plans, blueprints, and technical specification documents.

Once all project plans and designs are accepted, the project will move into execution phases. This portion of the project is where systems and facilities are built and eventually turned over to the owner. During Procurement and Construction Phases, the project team will source equipment and materials from vendors including water treatment systems, and onsite crews will complete site preparation, erect buildings or other structures, and install equipment according to the project design plans. The project will then proceed into Commissioning and Startup Phases, during which water treatment equipment is subjected to testing per the project plan, before it is finally put into operation. Vendors will typically provide operator training services during these phases as well. From there, the project will enter an ongoing Operations and Maintenance Phase for the remainder of its service life.

What is the riskiest phase of a water treatment project?

Issues can arise during any phase of a project, but because later tasks are largely dependent upon activities completed in earlier phases, unidentified problems can have ripple effects as the project progresses. In most cases, problems discovered during planning and design phases can generally be resolved with little to no impact on cost or timeline. In contrast, problems that persist into later execution phases tend to have more severe repercussions. Once construction begins, problems like design flaws, coordination errors, or unforeseen site conditions can trigger costly change orders and long delays. For this reason, construction and commissioning phases often have a reputation for being the riskiest part of a project. But that reputation isn’t entirely deserved, since problems encountered during construction often originate much earlier.

 

Best practices for mitigating risk at every phase

Here are some of the most common risks impacting water system builds, and how to prevent them from derailing your project.

Planning Phase

The risk: Inadequate needs analysis. Failing to anticipate the full operational needs of a water project can result in technical failure or underperformance in terms of treated water quality, capacity, and regulatory compliance gaps.

What to do about it: When planning a water treatment system, it is critical to conduct detailed needs analysis to accurately determine the full scope of performance objectives. To avoid common pitfalls, project planning should employ these best practices:

  • Invest in high-quality data collection and lab testing to get a thorough understanding of water quality. Repeated testing should be done over time to capture any variability due to seasonal changes or production cycles.
  • Use multiple models to anticipate current and future capacity needs, and design for modular expansion if possible.
  • Thoroughly research all environmental regulations that might apply to the project, and allow plenty of time to complete any permit application processes.

Design Phase

The risk: Choosing a system design that isn’t a good fit for the project. Designs that are chosen without attention to the specific demands of a project risk sub-optimal performance, or outright failure of the project.

What to do about it: Water treatment technologies need to be carefully selected based on many factors, including their effectiveness for separating out targeted materials, as well as their compatibility with other water treatment system components or process equipment, lifecycle costs, operational complexity, and their ability to tolerate challenging conditions (i.e. extreme operating temperature ranges, material compatability, etc.). To avoid hidden risks, consider implementing these strategies as part of the design process:

  • Conduct technical feasibility studies and/or pilot studies. These tools allow the design team to test the efficacy of treatment technologies before proceeding with a costly, full-scale build.
  • Seek input from subject matter experts (SMEs) across different functional areas, like construction teams, water treatment professionals, operational teams, and others. Getting different perspectives can help to identify design flaws early so they don’t derail later construction or commissioning phases.
  • Apply conservative design principles by developing a solution not based on normal operating conditions, but instead on the extreme scenarios. This means intentionally designing a solution to prioritize safety and withstand stress while operating effectively over the range of possible conditions.

 

Procurement Phase

The risk: Poorly drafted contracts. Agreements that lack clarity and precision can create ambiguity about who is responsible for what, leading to costly and time-consuming disputes as the project progresses. 

What to do about it: Success during procurement comes down to hiring reliable contractors, and developing contracts that clearly communicate expectations. When procuring services, equipment or supplies, contracts should explicitly state the scope of work, timeline, and project policies, while taking the following best practices into account:

  • Don’t make assumptions. Clearly defining each supplier’s responsibilities will help to prevent disputes about scope creep as the project moves into fast-moving construction, commissioning, and startup phases.
  • Vet vendors thoroughly. Water treatment vendors should have specialized expertise in water chemistry, contaminant removal technologies, and regulatory compliance in the relevant areas as identified in the project plan, and should be able to provide evidence of their experience in these areas.
  • In addition to scope of work, contracts should clearly communicate project policies, such as approval and signoff processes, change control processes, and price escalation clauses, to name a few examples.

Construction Phase

The risk: Schedule delays. The construction phase of a water project demands collaboration from multiple parties, often on a tight timeline. Missing a deadline can hold up other teams, which can snowball into unutilized labor costs, additional storage costs for equipment or supplies, and other consequences.

What to do about it: Careful planning during earlier phases is the most important step to take, both for preventing delays once construction starts, and for mitigating the impact of unforeseeable issues that might arrise, like supply chain disruptions, or weather-related delays. Consider implementing these best practices to minimize the impact of delays during construction:

  • Develop a detailed project schedule ahead of time to ensure you can anticipate potential bottlenecks and add some cushion where possible.
  • Create a contingency plan and budget to ensure that you can quickly resolve issues or enact a workaround within the project schedule and budget.
  • Enforce quality control policies. Ensure that inspections and signoff workflows are done properly throughout the project so that errors can be caught and corrected early.

 Commissioning & Startup Phases

The risk: System performance not meeting targets. Whether due to technical problems or operator error, substandard performance can lead to significant delays and cost overruns due to rework and/or ad hoc corrective measures.

What to do about it: Commissioning activities should ideally overlap with earlier phases, operating as a series of progressive checkpoints to ensure that all components are being properly built and installed according to project specifications. To ensure that commissioning proceeds smoothly, consider adopting these best practices:

  • Specify which testing activities will be completed, by whom, and when. Commissioning activities can easily be overlooked in vendor contracts, so be sure that the scope of work is specific about exactly which types of calibration and testing services vendors are obligated to provide (e.g. factory acceptance testing, proof of performance testing, etc.).
  • Plan for adequate knowledge transfer services, including operating training activities, as well as standard operating procedure (SOP) documentation.

How can SAMCO help?

SAMCO has over 40 years of experience in the design and delivery of high-purity water treatment systems and process separation solutions. Our team has extensive experience with a variety of  project delivery models, ensuring that we provide valuable insight and quality service whether we’re working directly with a client or in collaboration with a EPC firm. Our service offerings include: 

SAMCO draws on its extensive catalog of services to deliver custom water treatment or wastewater treatment systems for a range of industrial, municipal, or commercial applications that vary in scope and scale. To learn more about our innovative solutions, check out our project archive for examples of past projects. 

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