Two 48-inch PCCP water lines are shown temporarily suspended from bridge beams to allow for excavating and installing a new 72-inch pipeline underneath. Because the new pipe featured testable joints, each section could be tested as soon as installed and backfilled immediately with confidence that the joint is watertight.

When Kim Howe, Price Brothers Scheduler, attended the initial "Partnering for Success" meeting, held to launch the clearwell expansion project at Hap Cremean Water Treatment Plant, he was really impressed.

Prime contractor Kokosing Construction Company and the Division of Water for the City of Columbus, Ohio, hosted the meeting for 32 representatives from all the companies participating in the project. For two busy days they all joined in discussing the objectives and requirements for the project-as well as how the partnering process would help all the partners cooperate and communicate more effectively.

"In all my years with Price Brothers," recalls Kim, "this was the most highly organized partnering program I had ever been part of. It closely followed the guidelines set by the Associated General Contractors of America..

"I was also impressed by how similar this partnering program was to the way Price Brothers has always worked with customers, engineers, and contractors on every project."

This partnering experience proved to be a very effective way to talk in person with all the others we were associated with on this job. Kim had worked by phone and mail with Dallas Popham, Dennis Crawley, Dennis Tuttle, and others on Kokosing's team for years. This was his first chance to meet them in person, however.

As a result of that two-day partnering workshop, this complex 33-month project ran very smoothly. Price Brothers was able to "give and take" with the contractor to deal with all of their urgencies as well as ours.

The Hap Cremean expansion is adding six more underground clearwells for post chlorination and added detention. Each will be 300 feet square and 15-feet tall, will have a roof with three feet of earth cover on top and hold about 8 million gallons of water.

The prestressed concrete cylinder pipe Price Brothers provided on this project included 4,678 feet of 72-inch and 721 feet of 84-inch-diameter pipe plus some 67 matching fittings. Final pipe deliveries were made in February of 1994.

All the PCCP sections and fittings included our testable joint designed with two O-ring gaskets that enabled the joint seal to be easily checked with compressed air as each pipe section was being placed. Dallas Popham, the Kokosing project foreman, reported excellent productivity per day with this joint.

As Kim Howe reported, "Partnering on this project with the Division of Water for the City of Columbus, Kokosing Construction Company, and BBS Engineers proved to be a great experience for all of us on the Price Brothers team."

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Technical highlights Built in 1956 and doubled in size in 1967, using Price Brothers PCCP, the Hap Cremean Water Plant supplies 60% of the water used by the city and suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe installed for this expansion included 4,678 feet of 72-inch and 721 feet of 84-inch pipe as well as 67 matching fittings. Use of formal Partnering guidelines for the 33-month Clearwell Expansion project was a first-time experience for the City of Columbus, Kokosing Construction, BBS Engineers and Price Brothers.

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