MPWD Garners APWA Honor
On May 15, 2019, during the American Public Works Association (APWA) Silicon Valley Chapter monthly meeting, the City of Belmont and the Mid-Peninsula Water District (MPWD) were awarded the APWA 2019 Public Works Project of the Year Award (for projects $2M - $5M) in recognition of the Joint Sanitary Sewer and Water Rehabilitation Project that was completed in October, 2018.
This project – the first of its kind in the history of Belmont – involved joint coordination between the City of Belmont and MPWD. The City of Belmont planned to do a sewer rehabilitation/replacement of approximately 3,000 linear feet of sewer gravity lines in three different areas of the city. After City staff shared project specifics with the MPWD, it was discovered that MPWD had planned a capital improvement project that coincided with the sewer project locations. The MPWD project was set to replace 2,500 LF of aged 6" and 8" CIP with new 8" DIP, 65 service connections, and six fire hydrants under the same three streets. Additionally, MPWD advanced a few of its future capital projects to potentially coordinate again with the City of Belmont in achieving shared efficiencies.
As Rene Ramirez, MPWD Operations Manager, acknowledged, "The project addressed a common problem in a city. How many times have you heard from your City Council or Board that their constituents are asking them why are streets being torn up again? You were just in there within the past couple of years doing work?" Since this project combined improvements by two distinct public service agencies in the same work areas with the goal of fixing things all at one time, the City of Belmont and MPWD managed to avoid cutting open the same streets more than once over a short period of time. The final cost was $2,770,191 with minimal change orders. As a result, neighbors in the affected areas were happy and confident that their streets will not need to be torn up again in the foreseeable future.
By having two agencies working together to put out a project, the following benefits were achieved:
- Construction costs were lower since the bid quantities were higher.
- Construction time was significantly reduced since sewer and water improvements were constructed at the same time.
- Cost of project management, construction oversight, and inspection were significantly lower.
- Construction-related impact to residents and traffic were minimized.
- The project was managed by the City of Belmont ensuring that all improvements and road rehabilitation was done according to its specifications, guidelines, and regulatory requirements.
For MPWD, this is the second APWA Project of the Year Award in the last few years. In 2015, the Buckland Water Tank Replacement Project fetched the honor after a diligent two-year undertaking that replaced two 50-year-old water storage tanks in San Carlos with modern, seismically-resistant versions.
Click here for the engineer's overview/map (PDF)
City of Belmont and MPWD officials accepting the APWA Honor Award at the May 15 meeting in Mountain View. From left to right: Belmont Public Works Director Afshin Oskui, Belmont’s Craig West, MPWD's Stan Olsen, MPWD's Brent Chester, MPWD General Manager Tammy Rudock, APWA Silicon Valley Chapter President Roger Lee, Belmont’s Bozhena Palatnik, MPWD's Michael Anderson, MPWD's Rick Bisio, and MPWD Director Kirk Wheeler.
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