Jim:

Before anything else, PLEASE understand our interest in continuing our relationship with the City as the design consultant for the wastewater treatment plant and biosolids composting facility expansion. We have enjoyed the City of Arlington immensely as a client, and there is no more important wastewater design contract that our office wishes to work on. We hope that we have adequately expressed these desires all along, but please let me know if there are other efforts that we should undertake to illustrate our enthusiasm for continuing on with this challenging project, the degree to which we value Arlington as a client, or on our expertise with this type of work. Most specifically, if there are other consultants or manufacturers/contractors actively pursuing this project that are introducing new design or delivery concepts, we very much would want the opportunity to state our thoughts on those concepts. We hope that we have earned your trust in being able to speak candidly on such topics, while remaining open to them.

If the City, or specifically your selection committee, has developed a schedule for selection of a design consultant, I would enjoy knowing those milestones so that we can best prepare ourselves. We also would encourage you to utilize us as a resource in sharing our experiences on construction concepts such as equipment procurement techniques, presumably focused around a membrane manufacturer (open, base or evaluated bids, or pre-selection/pre-negotiation), as well as alternative delivery techniques (classic engineer design/bid/contractor build technique versus teaming a combination of the engineer, manufacturer, and contractor in a design/build or design/build/operate type of delivery approach). Specifically on the membrane procurement, we think that we, as the engineer, could aid in guiding the City on looking at manufacturer's proposals on an apples to apples basis, realizing issues such as guaranteed membrane flux rates being tied to pre-screening requirements, peak flows might be better handled through equalization than through more membranes, etc.

Please call me if you have an further questions or requests. I am available after 3 PM today to continue our conversation of this morning, and would enjoy relaying some of our experiences in projects that have shifted design elements to the manufacturer. We are not opposed to this approach in some capacity if it serves in the City's best interests, but we do believe there are things to guard against.

I will also update you on the schedule for Ecology review comments as soon as we hear from them. 

Chris

Christopher W.Kelsey, P.E.

Kennedy/Jenks Consultants
32001 32nd Avenue South, Suite 100
Federal Way, WA 98001
(253) 874-0555 (Seattle)
(253) 927-8688 (Tacoma)
(253) 952-3435 (fax)
(253) 670-5402 (cell)
ChrisKelsey@KennedyJenks.com (email)