What We Do

The Construction Committee mandate is to support the advancement in understanding construction processes associated with treatment and distribution through sharing of knowledge via different stakeholders and presenting them to the industry. Another mandate is to provide mentoring for new professionals.

Stakeholders include Owners, Contractors and Consultants, including office and field staff.

Processes include the review of contract delivery methods, communications, construction techniques, value engineering, cost bench marking, market analysis, innovations, project controls, change and risk management, partnering, collaboration, close-out, contract administration and resident inspection, health and safety and quality controls.

Our Activities

Review of Conference Abstracts and Chairing of Papers

Every year, we will review and select abstracts for the Annual OWWA Conference. We will chair and co-chair the Construction session during the conference and will promote the session to industry colleagues.

Seminars

Every February (commencing in 2017), the Construction Committee will present a one day seminar on Construction.

Technical Discussions

During each meeting, the Construction Committee will spend 30 minutes on a round table discussion on Construction. For example, our first round table discussion will be “Bridging the gap between Owners, Contractors and Consultants”. These discussions will form the basis for our annual seminar.

Publication of White Papers

Click on the topic below: 

 

Publication of Articles

The Construction Committee will prepare annually an article related to Construction for publication in the OWWA Pipeline.

Facility Tours

The Construction Committee will organize facility tours for its members, and may consider opening up these tours to the industry.

The “Construction Contract” Advisory

The OWWA Construction Committee consists of five Consultants, five Owners, five Contractors and one Operator.  At each meeting, the Committee discusses common construction issues. The conclusions /recommendations are not necessarily agreed upon by all members, but reflect the opinions of the majority of the Committee members.

As done herein, the Committee intends to publish a summary of these discussions.  These recommendations by the Committee members do not constitute a recommendation by the OWWA organization.

The “Construction Contract” Advisory
TENDERING ISSUES DISCUSSIONS CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION
Tender Price Breakdown Submission Requirements The Contractor’s Issue:Contractors are receiving price changes until the last few minutes before Tender closing – it is difficult to provide accurate breakdown!

 

The Owner’s Issue:

“Loading” of the Front end Tender items could occur with a post tender closing Price Breakdown submission.

One single “Total Tender Price” to be submitted on the due date.

 

 

Breakdown (per Division and per Specification Section) to be submitted 48 hours after closing date – Mandatory for 3 lowest Bidders.

 

Include clauses in the Contract to prevent submission of imbalanced breakdowns.

 

Complete the tender evaluation after the submission and comparison of the price breakdowns

Listing/naming/circling of Subcontractors and Suppliers in the Bid Submission The Owner’s Issue:Historically, Suppliers have brought complaints in front of politicians or a governing body about unjust “shopping around” or other pressure tactics to lower their price after tender closing.

 

The Contractor’s Issue:

Often, it is the Suppliers who initiate price negotiations, after Tender closing.

 

Some Suppliers change the Terms and Conditions of their scope, at the last moment – before Tender closing, when the General Contractor does not have the time to make a note of these changes.

Listing/naming/circling “major” Subcontractors and Suppliers in the Form of Tender is not preferred, unless preselected.Pre-qualification of major Subcontractors and Suppliers is preferred, provided more than one firm is shortlisted (per discipline or per equipment), to allow flexibility of choice for the Contractor.

 

 

For Owners that require fair wage policies, unionized contractors or simply choose to do so, List of Subcontractors and Suppliers to be submitted with the 48 hour Bid Price Breakdown.

 

For other Owners, List of Subcontractors and Suppliers to be submitted at time of pre-construction meeting or an agreed upon timeline.

Follow us on Twitter: @OWWA_Construct

Follow us on Linkedin: OWWA Construction Committee

 

Member Company
Rick Albert Bennett Group
Carlos Baez Associated Engineering
Matthew Ballaban GM Blueplan
Pasha Barazandeh KBS Pumps Inc.
Alison Barlow City of Toronto
Garry Boychuk City of Toronto
Sandra Burnell REVAY
Stewart Dickson R.V. Anderson
Jeff Dobbin H2Flow
Taylor Dorland Kenaidan
Leslie Ferguson Region of Durham
Sam Gagnon North American Construction 
Lyndon Grovum Maple Reinders
Tina Iacoe City of Hamilton
Dave Inrig  Benney Group
Stuart Leitch City of Hamilton
Sandy Moore Lexsan
Kevin Moran Rockwell Automation
Hanh Nguyen AECOM
Andrew Rodriguez City of Brantford
Brian Sahely SWEL
Alberino Scarpato Peel Region
Mike Schmied North American Construction
Masoumeh Sharafi AInley Group
Ian Smith Jacobs