Using Technology to Facilitate Construction of a Utility Expansion Project Roderick K. Cashe The City of Cape Coral (city) is a mixed residential and commercial community of nearly 170,000 residents located in southwest Florida. The vast majority of this community has been developed by utilizing septic tanks for sanitary sewage removal and onsite wells for potable water and irrigation needs. The city was incorporated in 1970 and quickly became one of the fastest growing communities in the state. In the 1990s, city officials instituted a program to construct public utilities throughout the city in a phased approach. Each phase of the work was divided into several programs of approximately $100,000,000 each. This article discusses one of those project phases, known as the Southwest 6 and 7 Utility Expansion Project (UEP). The UEP included
installation of over 52 mi of potable water mains ranging in diameter from 6 to 12 in., 65 mi of reuse irrigation main in sizes from 4 to 24 in., over 58 mi of gravity sewer in sizes from 8 to 24 in., 12 mi of sanitary force main, 18 sanitary lift stations, and removal/replacement of over 65 mi of roads. To compress the duration of construction, the city further subdivided this project phase into seven construction contracts ranging in duration from 14 to 18 months. Tetra Tech’s project team set out to devise an approach to make the construction of this project more manageable. Technology was targeted as a way to accomplish this; however, the challenge was determining which aspects of the construction process made the most sense to apply the proposed technology. Collaborating with the company’s team of experienced geo-
graphic information systems (GIS) analysts and technology specialists, the consensus was to pursue a means of managing the construction documents, while minimizing the impact of the intrusive construction activities on the residents. PlanGrid and ArcGIS were chosen as platforms to achieve the goal of making the construction operation more manageable. ArcGIS Online was chosen as the app to broadcast realtime maintenance of traffic conditions throughout the project area. PlanGrid is an app designed for the field and allows real-time interaction among field personnel, office engineers, and stakeholders. Seven resident project representatives (RPRs) were selected to manage each of the seven construction contract areas. These RPRs were provided with iPads and training to become proficient in maximizing the benefit of using these apps.
Background
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December 2016 • Florida Water Resources Journal
Prior to its development, the land where the city is now located consisted primarily of cattle farms and rural undeveloped land. In 1957, real estate developers purchased a 103-sqmi tract known as Redfish Point and began to develop land that would ultimately become Cape Coral. The Gulf American Corporation (GAC) was created with the purpose of planning and developing the property in this area. The platting and planning were for the development of a mix of residential and commercial land uses, with the primary emphasis on residential development. The initial plan was for development of over 350,000 residential lots with a projected population of over 400,000. Today, the city, with nearly 170,000 residents, is the third largest city by land area in the state and is the eleventh largest city by population. Early development by GAC began in the southeast portion of the city (south of Cape Coral Parkway). As development continued, centralized water and wastewater services were added; however, the pace of development began to pick up and spread beyond the southeast area. In addition, the development began to occur in a less manageable manner with lots scattered throughout the areas where the economies of scale to provide centralized