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SFPUC wastewater CIP updates; staff seeks WIFIA loan interest for $625 million
Summary
Wastewater capital-program director Karen Kubik reported schedule and cost variances on major projects, noted the draft EIR and planning milestones for headworks and biosolids facilities, and said the SFPUC submitted a WIFIA letter of interest for a potential $625 million loan to reduce borrowing costs.
Karen Kubik, Director of Capital Programs for Wastewater, delivered the wastewater enterprise capital-improvement quarterly report on June 13 and highlighted project delays, cost increases and financing efforts.
Kubik said the commission’s red-dot list includes the Southeast power feed and primary switchgear upgrades (delayed two years to align with a separate transmission project), the Marin Street pump-station replacement (all four bids exceeded project estimate) and a $7 million increase at Griffith Pump Station following a 2016 transformer failure. "We had a transformer that was damaged in mid-2016," Kubik said, describing subsequent replacement and the need for new switchgear and a motor-control center.
On major program milestones, Kubik reported staff is moving biosolids design to 65% and expects construction to start in 2018, that the draft environmental review for headworks was published in May and that the SFPUC plans to put construction-management and trade work out to bid later this year. She said the agency submitted a letter of interest to the EPA for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) seeking a low-interest loan of $625,000,000 to reduce long-term costs for ratepayers.
Kubik reviewed green-infrastructure and local-hire outcomes: 27 active prime contracts (11 professional services, 16 construction), 36% of project hours worked by San Francisco residents (equating to roughly $6.2 million in wages), and continued apprenticeships and entry-level pathways. She said monitoring for green-infrastructure performance will continue through the next wet season, with more definitive modeling results expected about a year after wet-weather monitoring is complete.
Commissioners asked for modeling data to be presented in the context of decision-making and staff said the collection-system plan to be presented in July will include recommended green-infrastructure opportunities and performance data to date.
