CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2025

The City of Lewiston is replacing its 100-year-old treatment facility. It is Idaho’s first PDB water project. They have a $27,500,000 budget. The project was awarded to IMCO in December 2020. We knew we would need to navigate supply chain issues and market uncertainty caused by the pandemic. At 30% design in April 2021, it was clear we were facing significant schedule uncertainty and cost escalation for steel and pipe materials. Steel prices were rising 5-10% per month and delivery of domestic pipe wasn’t guaranteed. We needed to act quickly to protect the City’s strict budget. The City, Stantec, and IMCO leveraged the flexibility of PDB to develop a early procurement packages for steel, pipe, and other key materials and equipment. We saved at least $600,000 in material costs and dramatically reduced schedule risk. We are on track to deliver the project on budget and on schedule by March 2023. As an industry, we have been creative in navigating the impacts of the pandemic. As things start to stabilize, early procurement should become the new norm. It provides benefits to all stakeholders: • Reduced schedule risk • Increased cost certainty • More confident design • Better information for quicker decision-making