On September 30, the Stowe Team presented at WEFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference. WEFTEC is the largest annual water quality exhibition in North America where professionals from across the water and wastewater industries gather to exchange ideas and technical expertise.
The Stowe Team was represented by Joseph Lockler (Interim Deputy Director, Charlotte Water), Nicole Bartlett (Stowe Project Manager and Engineering Division Manager, Charlotte Water) and Corey King (Project Manager, HDR). Their presentation, Elevating Operator Input: Techniques from a $580M Greenfield Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility, demonstrated how we implemented different communication strategies to facilitate cross-functional communications between utility operations staff, engineers, and construction teams to keep project partners in alignment, and how we measured the effectiveness of these strategies. The presentation was a component of a longer session on Collaborative Case Studies: Design-Build for Effective Capital Delivery.
The Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility is the first greenfield wastewater treatment facility under construction by Charlotte Water after 2000 and the largest capital project in Charlotte Water’s history.
A core project goal is to enhance environmental practices by incorporating operational lessons learned from other existing wastewater treatment facilities.
Charlotte Water took an innovative approach of assigning Operators in Responsible Charge for full-time involvement in the program design and construction, including full-time presence at office onsite during construction, to elevate operations input into the program. The Operators in Responsible Charge provide continuity across the project teams and a holistic perspective that ensures the design will implement lessons learned to best serve the day-to-day operations of the plant.
Charlotte Water is delivering the program via alternative delivery with multiple progressive design-build projects totaling an estimated construction cost of $580M. The Progressive Design Build contracting method allows construction to begin on certain components while other parts of the project are still in design. The size and complex delivery of the project can create communication challenges across project teams, therefore successful delivery requires consistent and meaningful communication between the design-build constructors and Charlotte Water. Charlotte Water, in collaboration with Owner’s Advisor HDR, established formal communication techniques between Charlotte Water engineering and operations staff, the Owner’s Advisor, engineers of record (Black & Veatch, Hazen and Sawer, HDR) and constructors (Crowder-Garney Joint Venture, Haskell Construction).
The techniques were designed to solicit input from Charlotte Water operations in addition to the typical project management and contracting teams that sit at the table. The team implemented six key communications techniques to facilitate collaboration across functional areas.
- Design workshops
- Equipment selection
- Submittal reviews
- Field staffing and services
- Recurring meetings
- Strategic planning
To measure the effectiveness of these six techniques, a survey was conducted in April 2025 across Charlotte Water leadership, environmental management, operations, and the Owner’s Advisor. The results showed a favorable view of these techniques for creating a format for operations to provide input, capture operations recommendations, and achieving final results in alignment with operations preferences. Nearly two decades in the making, the Stowe RWRRF program sets an example for cross-functional communication in a complex alternative delivery program.