Yerington Water & Rehabilitation Project Wins APWA Nevada Project of the Year Award
DOWL’s City of Yerington (City) Water & Sewer Rehabilitation project recently earned an American Public Works Association (APWA) Nevada Project of the Year Award in the Environmental category! Yerington is a small, rural agricultural community in central Nevada with a population of just over 3,000 that was in dire need of improving its water and sewer infrastructure. Installation of both utilities dated back to between 1906 and 1920 and were the cause for continual maintenance issues that the small public works department could not keep up with.
DOWL began the project in 2015 by updating the Utility Master Plan to identify deficiencies, with a focus on completing a video inspection of sewer collection mains. After completing a condition and risk assessment, we discovered only 70% of the collection system was accessible and the collection system was losing a large portion of sewage into the ground, which posed an environmental risk to the community. DOWL identified, prioritized, and recommended multiple phases of rehabilitation projects, including a total of 19 miles of sewer collection and 26 miles of water distribution infrastructure.
DOWL worked with the City to identify funding options for the improvements, including the United States Department of Agriculture – Rural Development (USDA-RD). The need for the project prompted USDA-RD of Nevada to elevate it to their national office and they awarded over $36 million in grant and loan funding for the project. This single obligation of funds was more than three times the annual funding allotment the entire state typically receives.
As the City’s project took form, the significant impact to the City became apparent, which began a focused community involvement initiative. DOWL helped identify opportunities for other local stakeholders to improve their utilities and realize efficiencies and lower costs under the larger project’s umbrella. The local tribe replaced over a mile of water, sewer, and roads under a grant program; the school district improved utilities and traffic safety; the county added a mile of high-speed fiber communications; the hospital replaced its on-site water and sewer infrastructure; and the City used road funds to rehabilitate and replace 10 miles of roadway.
Once funding was finalized, DOWL began a two-year venture of survey, design, permitting, and community engagement to prepare for bidding. This project is a testament to our Reno office’s ability to deliver large, complex projects requiring multiple disciplines. Many DOWL staff members contributed to this project’s success, including, but not limited to, Matt Van Dyne, Matt Schultz, Larissa Vallarino, George Nicholas and the survey team, TJ Paterson, Logan Garling, Greg Lyman, Alex Stodtmeister, and Matt Forrest.
Upon bidding and awarding the construction contract, the USDA-RD announced the project had received its National Earth Day Award and presented the award with state and national representatives at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony in September 2020.
The construction phase presented multiple challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply shortages, and the impact of major construction requiring 16 crews and more than 100 construction workers in a small community. DOWL and the project team addressed these challenges, successfully delivering the project with only 0.6% change orders, which allowed for contingent funding to be used to install additional utilities. The project has since been identified as the largest linear utility project USDA-RD has ever funded.