JEA Septic Tank Phase Out Program

Client: JEA
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
Services: Program Management, Project Management and Construction Management
Completion Date: 2011

Keville Enterprises provided on-call Construction Management Services as a prime consultant to JEA, Jacksonville’s public utility authority. JEA is responsible for the operation, maintenance, construction, and repair of all power generation and distribution systems, water treatment plants and distribution systems, sewage treatment plants and distribution systems, and associated commercial facilities within the City of Jacksonville.

Keville’s scope of on-call services included: Program/Project Management; Construction Management and Inspection; Scheduling; Cost Estimating; Claims and Change Order Analysis and Claims Avoidance Reviews; Constructability Reviews and other construction support services. Construction Management and Inspection services include: design management; performing constructability reviews; coordination throughout the procurement phase; ensuring that all structural, mechanical and electrical work is performed in accordance with contract documents; change order management during construction including negotiations; and coordinating construction activities with JEA Operations, other City of Jacksonville Departments/Authorities, construction contractors, designers, JEA clients, the traveling public, and all other entities affected by the work.

Septic Tank Phase Out Program
Keville was responsible for the overall management of this entire program for JEA. Keville professionals assigned to manage this program included the Program Manager, several Project Managers, Construction Managers, Inspectors, and a Scheduler. This program was established as a result of a city ordinance to address septic tank failure areas. A comprehensive list of neighborhoods was established, prioritized and approved by the local county health department and the city in 1999. Based on the scoring criteria, the top six neighborhoods on the list were declared sanitary nuisance areas and “The Better Jacksonville Plan” provided sewer funding to address the areas. In an effort to provide a comprehensive plan, it was determined that drainage and water needs would be addressed at the same time as the septic tank phase-outs. This program started in 1999 and was completed in 2009. Keville was given overall program management responsibility in 2004.

The phase out of septic tanks was accomplished by constructing all required infrastructure for complete sewerage collection systems. The primary technology used was conventional gravity sewer, but there were three areas that used vacuum sewer. In the end, a total of 27 lift stations and 3 vacuum stations were designed and constructed, as well as 80 miles of sewer/vacuum collection piping and 6.4 miles of drainage piping. 6,473 living units were connected to the central sewer collection system as a result of these projects. The costs of this program were $93.6M for sewer, $18.5M for water and $33.2M for drainage for a total program cost of $145.3M.

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