A $105-million design-build contract to build a 72-mile, high-capacity water transmission pipeline to carry water from the Missouri River to southeastern South Dakota has been awarded to a joint venture of Hausmann Construction and General Excavating in collaboration with engineer Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. (SEH). 

The project, which is slated to start this spring and be completed in 2027, will include upgrades and increased water storage at the Platte Water Treatment Plant in Platte, S.D. 

The water system is owned by the Randall Community Water District, which says taking a proactive approach to water system improvements is needed in the state which is facing increasing water demand. 

“Numerous studies have identified that existing water supplies and infrastructure will not be able to meet demands in the future,” the district said in a statement. 

The pipeline will serve two other water systems, an industrial area with an Ethanol plant and will be a secondary water source for the City of Mitchell, which uses another water system, but regularly exceeds its daily capacity of  2.6-million gallons.  

Clinton Powell, principal engineer for Pinpoint Corp., representing the water district in contract management, RFQ/RFP procurement processes, and construction administration, says this is the first time a design-build contract has been awarded for a water infrastructure project in the state. 

Using design-build rather than design-bid-build will reduce construction time from between four to five years to about two years, while cutting costs by 20% to 25%, Powell says. 

“There aren’t a lot of states that use design-build for water infrastructure,” Powell says. ”But it saves time in the bid process and in being able to design and construct the pipeline concurrently.”

“Because the need is urgent, the project required an innovative collaboration between the engineering firm, contractor and the state to accelerate the timeline,” added Steve Thiele, executive vice president at Hausmann.  

Scott Pick, general manager for the water district, says five firms submitted bids for the project. He liked the design-build process over the design-bid-build process because it required the companies “to tell us how they were going to do the project before they even do it. You aren’t looking at a low bid, but a qualified bid.” 

The bids were reviewed by the water district, and scored and rated for various benchmarks. The joint venture of Hausmann Construction and General Excavating, both based in Nebraska, had the highest score, Pick says.  

SEH, which is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., has specialized expertise in water distribution engineering and is providing professional design engineering and hydraulic modeling services as part of the design-build team.

Thiele says a challenge of the project will be coordinating with various stakeholders and contributors including the water district, the South Dakota Dept. of Agriculture and Natural Resources and impacted landowners.  

“We understand the critical nature of keeping everyone on the same page, so coordination across these parties will be the most challenging aspect. Our goal is a positive experience across the spectrum,” he says.