Wichita City Council adds $70K to water plant project for gender-neutral restrooms

Wichita’s City Council approved a $70,000 price increase to a new water treatment plant project to add gender-neutral restrooms.

The idea came out of the Northwest Water Treatment Facility project’s steering committee, which includes council members Brandon Johnson and Bryan Frye.

“We both felt that, moving forward with public facilities, this is something we have to address,” Frye said. “And continuing to make these buildings family friendly.”

Single-stall gender-neutral restrooms are seen as an accommodation for people who may feel uncomfortable using a men’s or women’s restroom because of their gender identity or simply because they want more privacy.

Alan King, director of public works and utilities, said the price increase was required because the gender-neutral restrooms were not included in the city’s $500 million-plus contract with Wichita Water Partners, a team of companies led by out-of-state firms Burns & McDonnell and Alberici.

The contract calls for Wichita Water Partners to design and construct restrooms to the minimum requirements of local building codes. At the water plant’s administrative building, code requires three men’s stalls and three women’s stalls.

“When we ask for something in addition to what the design-builder agreed to or they encounter conditions that could not have been anticipated, there is the potential for a change order,” King said.

King said Wichita Water Partners looked at several different potential configurations, including converting all of the restrooms to separate gender-neutral stalls to meet building codes, which would have cost between $70,000 and $120,000.

“Now, what we’re talking about the cost-wise is the revised design, getting it through the necessary design review, building permit, inspection, and that sort of thing and also construction,” King said.

King said the $70,000 option that would have made all of the restrooms gender-neutral was a nonstarter.

“We’d have to remove about half of the break room, and there would be no public access to the break room,” King said. “So even though the cost was about the same, it didn’t seem like functionally like that was a good alternative for us to consider.”

Instead, the water plant’s administration building will keep two stalls in the men’s and women’s restrooms and build two single-stall gender-neutral restrooms, to stay in compliance with the building code.

“The design looks good and I’m looking forward to seeing the final product,” Johnson said.

The contract for the Northwest Water Treatment plant has been at the center of controversy for the city as it tries to replace its aging water plant that’s on the brink of failure.

Wichita Water Partners was not the city selection committee’s first choice to design and build the new water treatment plant. The committee raised concerns with the group’s plans for disinfection, its experience, and its suggestion that the city tap a firm associated with the Flint, Mich., water crisis to train city staff on operating the new plant — a proposal that was ultimately rejected.

But former Mayor Jeff Longwell, who received thousands of dollars in company-funded golf rounds, meals and trips from contractors on the Wichita Water Partners team while the project was under consideration, said Wichita Water Partners could do the job for less money than Jacobs Engineering, who was recommended by the selection committee.

Longwell pushed to open a design contest that would pay both firms to complete an initial design of the plant and allow the city to select the low bidder on the rest of the project.

In response, Jacobs Engineering dropped out of the competition, leaving Wichita Water Partners as the sole bidder on the largest one-time project in the city’s history. The new plant is expected to be completed in 2024.

The restroom price increase is the first change order on the water plant project, which King said is “pretty remarkable” for such a large construction job and “goes a long way to show the kind of work and quality and cooperation that we are getting from Wichita Water Partners.”

Wichita Water Partners’ contract is for just over $500 million, and the city has budgeted $552,187,535 for any additional costs.

This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 4:25 AM.