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ALCOSAN Regionalization Implementation Program Management & Municipal Coordination
Project Overview
Regionalization is one of the many aspects of ALCOSAN’s Clean Water Plan. E. Holdings, Inc. has played a leading role in Regionalization Implementation. While our technical team is responsible for many infrastructure assessments and capital improvement planning, our communications team provides critical insight during the development of all communications and municipal outreach efforts.
E. Holdings, Inc. has maintained a 10 year relationship with ALCOSAN. Through our work with ALCOSAN we have coordinated with all of their 83 customer municipalities and municipal authorities. The municipal meeting coordination led by our team for Regionalization has resulted in over 300+ municipal interactions.
Core Services Performed:
- Municipal Coordination
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Meetings & Presentations
- Open House Planning & Execution
- Graphic Design
- Data Management
- Procurement Assistance Services
- Administrative Support
- Resident Inspection Services
Client: Allegheny County Sanitary Authority
Prime: AECOM
Timeline: 2015 – Present
Municipal Coordination
Project communications include collecting project data from the municipalities, distributing project updates and reports to the municipalities, providing notifications of inspection work in their municipality, and responding to any issues and concerns.
As part of the outreach process our staff maintains a database of issues and concerns. This tracking assures that action items from meetings or issues that come up throughout the process are addressed. It is also a useful tool for ALCOSAN to gauge support of the program and anticipating and managing municipal concerns. In addition to meeting summaries, our staff also compiles an annual report.
E. Holdings, Inc. communications staff has coordinated and attended all Regionalization program meetings with municipal engineers, managers, and elected officials. Meeting range from small scale to large and have occurred at various stages of project progress. These intricate meetings deal with the inner workings of Regionalization and provide technical updates and next steps. They also serve as a place where municipalities can discuss their issues and concerns with project and ALCOSAN staff. ALCOSAN is committed to communicating their message transparently and building connections with their municipal customers. Our team helps them meet this goal.
This region-wide effort is to share resources and develop economies of scale. E. Holdings supported the Construction Management and Construction Inspection for the ALCOSAN RI sewer assessments. Our team provided assistance on all aspects of the Program including development of request for proposals (RFP’s), bid advertisement, recommendation of award, project management, construction administration, on-site field inspection (RPR’s), and start-up/training. E. Holdings also provided document management, financial management, scheduling, cost estimating, public relations and outreach assistance as an integral part of the Regionalization Program.
GIS & Data Management
E. Holdings Inc. processed the inspection data collected by our field crews into Defect Reports with recommendations for repairs for approximately 270 miles of sewer, 6,200 manholes, 8 facilities, and 80 diversion structures ALCOSAN is adding to their system. All of the analysis will support ALCOSAN’s long-term CIP & OM for the acquired infrastructure.
Condition Assessment included E. Holdings, Inc. providing construction management services for:
- 40 miles of sewers located in 21 municipalities in the Upper Allegheny, Pine Creek, Thompson Run, Turtle Creek and Upper Monongahela basins
- 49 miles of sewers located in 16 municipalities in the Saw Mill Run and Upper Monongahela basins
- 64 miles of sewers located in 26 municipalities in the Chartiers Creek, Upper Allegheny and Pine Creek basins
- 70 miles of sewers located in 25 municipalities in the Lower Ohio, Girtys Run, Main Rivers, Upper Allegheny and Pine Creek basins
Our team worked with ALCOSAN GIS/IT department to identify and recommend a suitable asset management system. The solution had to be GIS based with a management system to support several departmental goals. Our team met with the departments to identify the different data types that would need to be integrated. After we gathered a comprehensive list, we created an Asset Management data flow that was used as a crosswalk between the data, system and department. All of this information was used to design a data architecture.
Data testing was conducted to ensure data integrity and standards were adhered to. In addition, processes with various metrics were automated to ensure data was transferred, updated and backed up on a daily basis. A standard operating procedure was developed for Data Collection, Network Data Management, Inspection Survey Data Management and Data Analysis.
Throughout the project, we worked with the GIS and asset management team at ALCOSAN to develop tailored standard operating procedures. We developed a training program to ensure ALCOSAN staff were up to date on the latest iterations of the procedures that included hands on demonstration workshops and practice sessions to allow them to build confidence with the processes in a consequence free environment.
We have expanded the scope of this project to include a pilot area that will focus on repair methods and data processing techniques that they may not have been exposed to while maintaining their own system. As ALCOSAN regionalizes more of the system, we will be helping them to expand their knowledge, and streamline their processes to ensure that the service area is well maintained, and the resulting data is utilized to the fullest extent possible. As we continue to work with ALCOSAN to facilitate the transfer of municipal assets over to their ownership we are collecting and reviewing municipal repair data to ensure that the sewers are in an acceptable condition for transfer. We are also working on the transfer agreements and all of the accompanying legal documentation that is required.
