McCarthy Wraps $74M Lawrence Wastewater Upgrade Using CMAR Delivery
McCarthy Building Cos. and engineer-of-record Black & Veatch have finished modernizing the Kansas River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lawrence, Kansas, a $74.3 million job that marked the city’s first use of construction manager at risk delivery on a wastewater project, Construction Dive reports.
Market Impact
The plant, which has operated since 1956 and handles about 8 million gallons, or roughly 80%, of Lawrence’s daily wastewater, needed upgrades to meet tightening state and federal discharge standards. The project converted four aeration basins to biological nutrient removal basins to cut nitrogen and phosphorus discharge into the Kansas River, added a new supervisory control and data acquisition system for real-time plant monitoring, and included electrical and infrastructure upgrades. The completed work brings the facility into compliance with updated National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit standards set by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Kerry Klausner, senior project director for McCarthy, said in the announcement that the CMAR approach “demonstrated how a collaborative delivery approach can create meaningful value for the client and all project partners by strengthening coordination, reducing risk, and supporting smart solutions from preconstruction through completion.” The job adds to a run of water-sector work for McCarthy, which reached a milestone in January on a $168 million Mesa, Arizona, water treatment project and began a $185 million water job in Torrance, California, with Jacobs in June.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- CMAR delivery means subs get pulled into preconstruction earlier than on design-bid-build jobs, so mechanical, electrical and instrumentation (E&I) trades bidding future Lawrence-area municipal work should expect GMP-based subcontract packages rather than lump-sum bids after full design.
- Process control and SCADA integrators should note the plant’s new real-time monitoring system as a reference project when pursuing similar upgrades at aging municipal plants facing NPDES compliance deadlines from state environmental agencies.
- Electrical and civil subs working on nutrient-removal retrofits (aeration basin conversions to biological nutrient removal) can point to this $74.3 million Lawrence job as a comparable scope-and-cost benchmark when scoping bids on similar basin conversions elsewhere.
- Firms eyeing municipal wastewater contracts in growing river-basin markets should track how CMAR risk-sharing terms affect payment sequencing and change-order handling, since Lawrence’s use of the method here could set precedent for how the city structures its next wastewater or water infrastructure bid package.
- Contractors pursuing large water-sector work should watch McCarthy’s expanding pipeline, including the $168 million Mesa, Arizona plant and $185 million Torrance, California project with Jacobs, for subcontracting opportunities as those jobs move through construction.
