“See you at the Station”

There is a Time and Place for a “Packaged Sewer Lift Station”

The decision whether to place into service a Packaged Sewer Lift Station or put out to bid a Conventional RFP with a private engineering firm designing every detail of the proposed sewer lift station is an important one! Both methods have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. The big question that comes up is, when is that time and place for a Packaged Sewer Lift Station in the whole “design of things”. That’s what we are really talking about “The Design” and secondly, “How much time do we have. The Packaged Sewer Lift Station is not going to be applicable in the case of a Macro station where average flows approach several thousand GPM, and holding wells become necessary to size in the range of 12’ in diameter and greater. I know of several studies in comparing the savings of either specifying  a “Packaged Sewer Lift Station” or opting for the alternative, where the standard Public request for bids solicitation is paced in builder’s exchanges and area newspapers.  Actually both means of securing a Sewer Lift Station are good and the studies written by those favoring each method are always informative and strong on content. I feel my analysis of the best way to attain a municipal or private Sewer Lift station is without a slant either way. I own two companies, one is a licensed contracting firm that bids and bonds public works projects under the standard RFP and engineer design type of project.  A second company I own is Taylor Made Pump Stations, we “Design/Build “Package Sewer Lift Stations, mostly for state and federal agencies.  What I see as advantages in one system over the other is often offset by a feature or design method I like with either option..

The design component that comes out on top in a direct comparison of the Packaged Sewer Lift Station and a Contractor build in place public works sewer lift station is the control and  SCADA Package.

“The additional time the design team has in communicating makes for a better communication system when it comes to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition components,(SCADA)“

Here goes a bit of logic if you will when it comes to whats more logical in the choice to design in house the control package or write into the specifications “The control package will be an integral package as part of  the design components in a complete and Packaged Sewer Lift Station as Made by Taylor Made Pump Station or equal. OK, the effluent is really flowing so to speak and the plug for my station was only meant to state that something “Taylor-ed” to a particular main component is usually better: I’ll stop now. Yes, it is true that both means of procurement use “Boiler-mate Language”. The difference is the established Packaged Sewer lift Station Manufacturer can work on the control specification with the electrical designer from a two way informational approach as to what will work the best There is a lot of coordination and detail required in the standard plan to put a Sewer Lift Station out to bid.  As an engineer  it consumes much of your time to engineer the mentioned standard model of design specifications Now, quite naturally it also produces many billable hours, and that can be a good thing, for the firm if that is all that’s to be considered. I can see where specifying a control package in the standard bid format leaves a bunch of work for an usually “less than knowledgeable” contractor when it comes to the Supervisory Control and Data acquisition, programmable logic controller, HMI, and the basis for much of our control systems in the modern Packaged Sewer Lift Station, Ladder Logic. I can tell you this that most of the Packaged Sewer Lift Station builders have at least two independent control firms they work with. I can tell you from experience that they are a wealth of knowledge and it put the Package Sewer Lift Station Builder in the position of quickly being up and running and able to supply the right control package because the relationship is “on-going”.  It is kind of like knowing your regular dance partner is the best and together the steps come easy. With the Packaged Sewer Lift Station Builder the concrete wet well and related pumping equipment are the straightforward components. The control package integrated into most Packaged Sewer Lift Stations these days is much more involved. The need to integrate multiple ports and remote station connectivity issues all add up to little problems that are easily solved, because we probably had a “code” similar on the last station.

It all comes down to the old axiom, “Practice Makes Perfect” and in general the General Contractor and his forces do not perform Sewer Lift station Construction all that often.

Due to time constraints I have cut short some of the points that make a conventional Request for proposals on a new Municipal sewer lift station a great way to go. You will just have to wait till next week when we cover all that’s great in standard RFP for a Sewer Lift Station.

“See you next week at the station.”