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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/16/2010, C4 - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS - DESIGN, TRAFFIC ENGINEERING, AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES, SPECIFIC I II council KlKd ,D.W March 16,2010 j acEnoA RepoRt 1WMNum`w CITY O F SAN LUIS O B I S P O FROM: Jay, D. Walter, Director of Public Works how Prepared By: Matt Horn, Supervising Civil Engineer SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS — DESIGN, TRAFFIC ENGINEERING, AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES, SPECIFICATION NUMBER 90703-2010 RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Approve the Request for Proposals (RFP) to provide Design, Traffic Engineering, and Construction Management Services for the Capital Improvement Program, Specification No. 90703-2010. 2. Authorize the City Manager to execute agreements with the selected consulting firms. 3. Authorize the Finance Director to execute Purchase Orders for individual projects to consultants under agreement, in an amount not to exceed the authorized project budget. DISCUSSION Background Included in the City's two-year Financial Plan is the Capital Improvement Plan, which programs City funded projects that improve existing infrastructure and implement Council priorities. The City's 2005-07 Capital Improvement Plan funded projects in the amount of$21.1 million dollars. With the passage of Measure Y in November 2006 a ''/z cent sales tax increase was passed by the citizens of San Luis Obispo. In response to Measure Y , the City's 2007-09 Capital Improvement Plan funded projects in the amount of$40.6 million dollars, or roughly double the amount in the prior Financial Plan. In 2008 the global economy slowed and the effect was reflected in the most recently adopted 2009-11 Capital Improvement Plan, reducing funded project levels to $27.1 million dollars. The responsibility for delivering a large portion of these projects in the Capital Improvement Plan is assigned to the Public Works Engineering Program. Through 2009, the Public Works Engineering Program was comprised of five engineers, three engineering technicians, and four construction inspectors, including supervisory staff. To implement the much larger 2007-09 Capital Improvement Plan with unchanged staffing levels, consultant services were needed. Capital Improvement Plan project work went from largely being designed and managed through construction by City staff, to consultant design and consultant inspection with City staff oversight. RFP—Design,Traffic Engineering, and Construction Management Services Page 2 -Budget Period C1P Funding Amount Engineering Staffing Use of Consultants 5 engineers 2005-07 21.1 Million Dollars 3 engineer technicians Low 4 inspectors 5 engineers 2007-09 40.6 Million Dollars 3 engineer technicians High 4 inspectors 5 engineers 2009-11 27.1 Million Dollars 2 engineer technicians Medium 4 inspectors In the Traffic Engineering section additional contract and temporary staff have been added to assist with workload and project delivery.. However, even with the additional temporary help, consultant services play a crucial role particularly in transportation-related development review and capital project assistance. The RFP addresses both project work and general Traffic Engineering support work which may be needed. Request for Proposals The volume of projects in the 2009-11 Capital Improvement Plan is significant and are larger in number than can solely be handled by City engineering staff. Reliance on consultant services to the same extent that was used for the 2007-09 CIP is not anticipated, but use of consultants will be needed to deliver the Capital Program. To help expedite projects, staff recommends advertisement of this RFP for additional engineering assistance.. Currently the Public Works Engineering Program is managing 109 projects, 34 of which are carried over from previous financial plans. Staff has identified projects to outsource to consultants for design services as well as projects that will likely need to be outsourced for construction inspection services. The RFP contains a list of projects grouped into four basic types: Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Traffic Engineering, and Construction Inspection projects. It is anticipated that more than one firm will be on contract as a result of this RFP to provide on-call services used as necessary. The oversight of the design and construction management consultants will be handled largely by the Public Works Engineering staff. The Transportation Section of Public Works will oversee On-Call Traffic Engineering services. The consultants will operate under the conditions of the agreement included in the RFP. Individual projects will be scoped with the City department most involved and the consultant. The,specific project work will then be authorized via a Purchase Order through the Finance Department, referencing the signed agreement. Engineering staff will continue to do other project work in addition to managing consultant work. As a result of the current budget shortfall staff is in the process of reviewing all operating budgets and capital projects in order to develop a budget balancing plan. Through this process there may be some capital projects that might be deferred and therefore these consulting services will not be needed. Staff will review this issue with the City Manager and ensure that the use of the services covered in the RFP will only be used on projects that are scheduled to move forward. Internal Staff Reassignments �q—� RFP—Design, Traffic Engineering, and Construction Management Services Page 3 In addition to the proposals from consultants to augment staff for design and construction management needs of the 2009-11 Capital Improvement Plan, staff is also looking internally to help with the workload. Even with use of contract inspection, workload is currently projected to be at a very high level this summer, as it is the optimal time for construction. This increased workload during the summer months will require all available staff to oversee needed contract inspectors. With the current economic climate, construction from private subdivision work is less than in previous years. This presents an opportunity for one construction inspector who typically inspects subdivision tract improvements to work with consultant inspection on Capital Improvement Plan projects. FISCAL IMPACT The RFP agreement, in and of itself, does not obligate any funds for additional CIP consultant, construction, or inspection work. When the agreements are executed by the City Manager, staff will begin scoping meetings and issuance of Purchase Orders. Work will be billed to the individual project accounts, not to exceed the funding authorized by Council without additional approvals. ALTERNATIVES 1. Traditional Approach. The Council could direct staff to proceed in a more traditional fashion, issuing RFP's only for individual projects. On the plus side, a company with greater experience in the specific work might be attracted. On the minus side, this involves considerable work by the Public Works Engineering staff, which will have their own projects to design in addition to managing consultant design work. The RFP does provide for the use of sub- consultants to address the issue of specialized work. Staff does not recommend this approach because it adds to the workload (more individual consultant contracts), takes a great deal more time to implement individual contracts, while providing a minimum of benefit. 2. In-house Approach The Council could direct staff to complete more of the work in-house. At this time, Public Works Engineering is not staffed to deliver the proposed volume of work. Staff does not believe that hiring additional staff, at least at this time, is practical because of the time it takes to hire and train engineering and inspection staff. It typically takes staff a period of one to two years to become fully productive and knowledgeable about the City's processes, depending upon their skill level and prior public entity experience. Additionally, the current fiscal situation of the City is not conducive to adding new staff positions. Existing engineering staff workload is high designing current CIP projects, meeting grant commitments, and meeting the immediate needs of failing infrastructure. AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW IN THE COUNCIL OFFICE Request for Proposals for Capital Improvement Plan Design Service, Specification No. 90703- 2010 1lcbstoraftam\coundl agenda reportslpublic works car1201 ftpW703-2010 eng 8 crnW703-2010 adverbse.doc C�'3