Lower South Creek Treatment Program

The Riverstone, Quakers Hill and St Marys Wastewater Treatment Plants / Water Recycling Plants are the only  plants that currently treat and discharge effluent into South Creek. These plants have separate Environmental Protection Licences (EPLs) with Nitrogen and Phosphorus discharges jointly regulated by the South Creek Bubble Licence. All three plants have short to medium term capital investment needs – either renewal or growth (upgrade) based.

Brief

The Quakers Hill WRP secondary treatment assets have reached the end of their service life. Replacement of these assets is now urgent. At the same time, facility blueprints have identified the need for major investment at the Riverstone WWTP to cater for growth, and the need for renewal of biosolids processing and inlet works at the St Marys WRP and a 12km sludge transfer pipeline connecting Quakers Hill and St Marys.

Phase 1 – Market Sounding and Procurement Strategy

The client conducted a Market Sounding Process to obtain input from industry stakeholders, and to help inform the procurement strategy, and potential packaging for works at the three wastewater treatment facilities – St Marys, Quakers Hill and Riverstone. The need for investment in these three plants was driven by increased capacity requirements due to population growth, especially within the North West Growth Centre, the need to meet licence requirements set by EPA for discharge quality, and to improve general asset condition and reliability and biosolid handling.

Phase 2 – Delivery Partner Procurement Transaction

As a result of this market sourcing exercise and corresponding procurement strategy, the client then mandated the procurement of a “Delivery Partner” as the preferred approach for managing the design and construction of the works, required to deliver the Riverstone WWTP, Quakers Hill WRP, St Marys WRP and sludge transfer pipeline as a consolidated program, within the very tight time constraints required to delivery on EPA license and plant capacity needs.

What we did

HKA was engaged by the client for both phases to provide the following services:

Report on findings from the industry engagement and market sounding briefing session, comprising review and consolidation of feedback from interview sessions and supplementary written submissions, compilation and presentation of an Industry Sounding Report and assisting with development and presentation of the intended procurement strategy / route for the program to various stakeholders.

Transaction Advisor for end to end procurement of the LSCT Program Delivery Partner.

Develop the commercial framework, and EOI, ITPD and RFT documentation, including Industry briefings and management of external legal advisors for the transaction.

Design and development of the Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) framework, process and documentation, including facilitation of the 6 week Interactive Dialogue process with up to three proponents.

Advisory on development and execution of the evaluation plan / criteria during the EoI, ITPD and RFT phases.

Design and development of a risk based commercial evaluation tool, inputting financial and non-financial data, to model each proponent’s submission simultaneously during the ITPD and RFT phases. This provided live reporting on which proponent submissions offered the greatest value for money and the least risk transfer to the client. This tool also allowed the client to evaluate and provide ongoing feedback on proponent submissions to facilitate the selection of the ‘right’ Delivery Partner and achieve the optimum commercial outcome for the program.

HKA also partnered with a specialist advisor during part of the Delivery Partner Procurement Transaction to provide the following services:

Design, development and facilitation of scenario based interactive team exercises to assess cultural and behavioural alignment between the client and each proponent, the outputs of which were assessed and applied as part of the overall evaluation criteria.