The City of Atlanta owns two major surface water treatment plants (WTP's), the 64 million gallon per day (MGD) Chattahoochee facility and the 200 MGD Hemphill facility. A private operations firm operates each facility. As part of the City's ongoing water system improvements program, each of these facilities was slated for substantial upgrades over the next 5-years. The first project was the upgrades to the City's Chattahoochee WTP residuals handling facility, which was completed in September 2002. The second project was the filtration system and chemical feed system improvements at both the Chattahoochee and Hemphill WTP's, which will be completed in March 2004. To date the first project has been a success, which included being completed 5-months ahead of schedule and at cost. More importantly, the success of this initial project provided the City with opportunity to proceed with their future major water system capital projects utilizing the same format. This paper provides the reader with the City's selected procurement method, the steps taken in the development of this program, and approaches to risk allocation. The City of Atlanta's recent completion of the residuals management and filter backwash facilities at the Chattahoochee WTP illustrates many examples of procurement principles, as well as the success of this project, and will serve as a case study example.