Title
Report regarding a resolution approving a consulting services agreement with Nichols Consulting Engineers (NCE) of Richmond, California for the 2022 West of 101 Pavement Rehabilitation Project (No. st2107) in an amount not to exceed $1,596,000, authorizing the City Manager to execute the agreement, authorizing a total project design budget of $1,755,600 and approval of Budget Amendment Number 21.044. (Angel Torres, Senior Civil Engineer)
Label
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution awarding a consulting services agreement with Nichols Consulting Engineers (NCE) of Richmond, California for the 2022 West of 101 Pavement Rehabilitation Project (No. st2107) in an amount not to exceed $1,596,000, authorizing the City Manager to execute the agreement, and authorizing a total project design budget of $1,755,600. In addition, staff recommends that the City Council approve Budget Amendment Number 21.044, amending the Fiscal Year 2020-21 Capital Improvement Program budget by appropriating $500,000 in Road Maintenance (SB1) (Fund 212) into the project budget to cover the initial design fees.
Body
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
With over 140 centerline miles of roadway, the City of South San Francisco pavement network represents a significant asset that is highly visible and important to the community and local businesses, and therefore requires good decision making as to how to best manage and maintain. It is the intent of this contract to deliver a pavement rehabilitation capital improvement project that balances the long-term pavement performance and sustainability with cost-effective design, construction and future maintenance, all while providing a project with minimal amount of traffic disruptions during construction.
By front loading maintenance in 2022, as opposed to a longer time frame, the City is able to recognize economies of scale as well as significant savings in design, construction with less mobilization costs, and future annual street maintenance costs. This project will also bring meaningful and long-lasting improvements to the community, extend ADA accessibility on local streets, and enhance street aesthetics and overall function. It also provides more immediate improvement in the network pavement condition index (PCI) and a positive message of significant roadway improvements to the public. The rehabilitation work plan including recent rehabilitation projects will address over 25 centerline miles of streets (19% of entire network) with approximately $24 million total project costs. The overall network PCI will improve from 75 to 87 (good to excellent condition) upon completion of construction in 2022. With this larger rehabilitation program, the City will be able to reduce annual maintenance costs from $4.5 million per year to $2.0 million per year by treating all rehabilitation street candidates West of 101 and including upfront economy of scale savings which will save the City approximately $15.5 million over the next 15 years.
The goal of this contract is to provide technical, timely, and cost-effective solutions to implement this 2022 West of 101 Pavement Rehabilitation program successfully. The key approach of NCE to design this high profile and large rehabilitation program will be as follows:
1) Completing detailed pavement investigations and analysis to implement the latest pavement technologies along with conventional pavement treatments to realize cost savings for construction.
2) Completing bid documents for early winter bidding in 2021 to secure more bidders and more competitive bids during the winter when contractors are less busy and looking to book work. This will also allow start of construction in April 2022 to accommodate a longer construction duration and completion of paving during warmer weather resulting in better constructed roadways.
3) Keeping the public informed with public workshops regarding the limits and types of street improvements, construction methods, duration of construction including construction operating days and hours, traffic control, parking restrictions, and access.
4) Minimizing the construction impacts with the selection of pavement technologies that can be more readily completed including fewer construction lifts, avoiding reconstruction that could introduce problematic subgrade and utility conflicts, selecting recycle in-place technologies that allow a paved surface rather than a rough milled surface with loose millings at the end of the working shift, faster paving with limited off/on-haul truck traffic, and sustainability benefits.
5) Identifying constructability issues during the field review including paving methods and access of equipment, construction equipment access and site constraints, ADA compliance and fit at intersections and pedestrian access points, potential impacts to residents or businesses, and utility conflicts.
6) Developing bid documents that are clear as to how traffic, noise, parking, access routes, and dust and debris will be managed by the contractor. Specifications and plans will clearly define schools (particularly drop-off/pick-up times), community buildings, businesses and their hours of operation and commute areas/traffic patterns, school bus routes, ADA access needs, and restrictions to construction times and days and other traffic control requirements to minimize delays and impacts. Management of phasing construction work items and project locations for such a large-scale project will also be considered in the development of the plans and specifications.
Overview of City’s Procurement Process
The City’s procurement process is governed by both state and local law. State law requires contracts for construction to be competitively bid pursuant to a set of specific, established rules. In particular, the City is required to award construction contracts to the “lowest responsible bidder” after providing notice in accordance with law. (Pub. Contract Code §§ 20162, 20164.)
However, in awarding contracts for the purchase of professional services, equipment and supplies, the City has some latitude. State law requires the City to adopt regulations and policies to govern such service and supplies procurement, but otherwise provides the City flexibility in determining relevant requirements as long as they are consistent with applicable state law. (Gov. Code § 54202.) Chapter 4.04 of the Municipal Code and the City’s Purchasing Procedures (Administrative Instruction Section IV, No. 1) govern the City’s purchasing policies and contract procurement processes.
The City’s purchasing ordinance distinguishes between three primary types of procurement methods as follows:
1. Competitive Bidding for Construction Projects
Public projects are specifically defined under the Public Contract Code, and generally involve any construction project that is paid with public funds or those projects involving improvements, demolition or other work on public property or facility. Public projects are required to be procured through competitive bidding and the City must award the contract to the lowest bidder whose bid complies with all of the City’s solicitation requirements and demonstrates that the bidder is able to perform the work. Under the City’s policy, different levels of competitive bidding are required depending on the dollar limit of the underlying project.
For these contracts, cost is generally the sole determining factor and the lowest responsible bidder is awarded the project even if another bidder appears to be more skilled but is more expensive.
2. Open Market Procedures for Vendors (Supplies and Equipment)
Open Market Procedures is the City’s vendor selection process for purchase of goods, supplies, and professional services. These rules do not apply to, and may not be used for, public construction projects.
Contracts for the purchase of goods and services that exceed $10,000 requires staff to utilize open market procedures. If the contract is $25,000 or less, staff must obtain at least three quotes, which are informal offers to perform work at a stated price. If the contract is greater than $25,000, staff will be required to solicit the project, such as issuing a Request for Proposals (“RFPs”) and obtain at least three written responses.
Under this vendor selection process, cost can be only one factor in determining which vendor the City will ultimately select for services, equipment or supplies. This requirement is similarly reflected under SSFMC § 4.04.080.
Thus, when utilizing the open market vendor selection process, the City is focused on the skill, ability, and expertise of the entity or person to be able to provide the service, equipment or goods to the City. The selection is based on competence, professional qualifications, and overall value to the City with cost being only one factor in the determination of an award.
Federally Funded Procurements for Vendors (Supplies and Equipment)
Contracts that receive federal funding are required to incorporate and comply with additional terms and conditions. The City’s Purchasing Procedures also provides guidance on procuring supplies and equipment contracts that are federally funded. Federally funded procurements also require a written procedure for conducting evaluations and for selecting recipients and awarding the contract to the responsible firm whose proposal is most advantageous to the City with price being only one factor. It is also important to note that federally funded procurements do not include state or local geographical preferences unless specifically authorized by federal law. Each evaluation is a non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all vendors.
3. Open Market Procedures for Architectural and Engineering (A&E) Professional Services
For certain professional services such as architectural, engineering, environmental, land surveying, or construction project management, the Government Code also specifically requires that such services not be awarded solely based on price, but instead based on demonstrated competence. (Gov. Code § 4526.) Both the state law provision and the City’s policy reflect the legislative view that when acquiring such services, the City does not necessarily receive the best value when it pays the lowest price. (See e.g. California Attorney General Op. No. 94-819 (February 9, 1995)).
General Request For Proposals (RFP) Review Process
RFPs are the City’s primary method to procure equipment, materials, supplies, and professional services. Typically, this process consists of the City issuing the RFP for proposals from vendor candidates to demonstrate their qualifications and abilities to provide the City with desired services, equipment/supplies, or other goods.
The City’s RFP will contain evaluation and scoring criteria used to rank vendor candidates based on the strength of their proposals.
Typical factors include demonstrated knowledge, qualifications, industry reputation, implementation schedule, ease of implementation and cost. Factors not typically considered include the size of the firm and geographic location of the firm (i.e. whether the firm is local, in- or out-of-state), race, sex or gender. However, the City does have the discretion to include geography as one evaluation factor and to select local vendors where the quality and price are equal between local and non-local vendors and federal funds are not used.
The City assembles an evaluation panel comprised primarily of City staff and third-party consultants and personnel as necessary, to review and score the proposals, negotiate with the top-ranked candidate, and recommend the selection for City Council approval. Staff will also maintain records of the method of evaluation, final vendor selection and negotiations for a final contract.
Once candidates are ranked and a top-ranked candidate is identified, staff will negotiate terms of the contract with that candidate. The final award of the contract is subject to consideration and approval by the City Council. Staff will present the selection recommendation to the Council and prepare a resolution awarding the contract to the recommended candidate. If the Council does not support staff’s recommendation, then it could elect not to take any action on the resolution or contract award, and may instead direct staff to either reconsider the other proposals selected or to re-issue the RFP which may include additional or different selection criteria and qualification requirements.
Current Project: 2022 West of 101 Pavement Rehabilitation Professional Services Procurement
The current project falls under Procurement Type 3: Open Market Procedures for Architectural and Engineering (A&E) Professional Services.
Staff issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on the ProcureNow website on December 10, 2020. To generate interest in the project, staff notified design and engineering firms of the RFP advertisement. Staff reached out directly to all civil design firms from the City’s On-Call List as well. Six firms downloaded the proposal packet. Proposals were due on January 12, 2021 and one firm, NCE, responded. Staff checked ProcureNow to generate a list of interested firms and contacted them to ask why they did not submit a proposal. Several firms stated that given NCE’s recent history of working on the City’s multi-year Pavement Management Program (PMP), they felt NCE would be best suited for this design project, while a few noted they were too busy with projects either already underway or scheduled to start soon.
A&E Professional Services Total Cost
NCE of Richmond, CA $1,596,000
Contingency $ 159,600
Total Project Design Budget $1,755,600
Note - Staff is pursuing a Bond Measure to fund remaining design costs and all pavement rehabilitation construction costs, as explained further below.
NCE’s proposal was reviewed by a panel of three consisting of a Senior Engineer leading the City’s Pavement Management Program (PMP), Principal Engineer for the DPW Engineering Division and Associate Engineer.
Members of the panel rated the proposals in the following areas:
1. Knowledge and Understanding - Demonstrated understanding of the RFP objectives and work requirements. Identification of key issues. Familiarity with state and federal procedures. Methods of approach, work plan, and experience with similar projects related to type of services.
(30 points maximum)
2. Management Approach and Staffing Plan - Qualifications of project staff (particularly key personnel such as the project manager), key personnel’s level of involvement in performing related work and the team’s experience in maintaining schedule.
(30 points maximum)
3. Qualifications of the Proposer Firm - Experience with similar projects. Technical experience in performing work related to type of services; capabilities of developing innovative or advanced techniques; strength and stability of the firm; technical experience and strength and stability of proposed subconsultants; demonstrated communications quality and success; and assessments by client references as available.
(30 points maximum)
4. Presentation of a concise and responsive proposal.
(10 points maximum)
The NCE proposal was scored by the panel as follows:
Scoring Criteria Points Awarded (avg) Points Possible
Knowledge and Understanding 28 30
Management Approach and Staffing Plan 27 30
Qualifications of the Proposer Firm 30 30
Presentation of a concise and responsive proposal 9 10
Total 94 100
The NCE team provides the following benefits and distinguishing features to deliver the City’s project:
• Proven Track Record with the City - Successfully completed pavement resurfacing, rehabilitation, and reconstruction projects for the City since 2017, that comprised of 47.7 centerline miles of streets for resurfacing and 8.0 centerline miles of streets for rehabilitation.
• Knowledge of the City’s Roadway Network - NCE has worked recently with the City to develop an update to the City’s 6-Year Paving Plan and preliminary rehabilitation project on west of Highway.
• Demonstrated pavement rehabilitation design expertise from designing thousands of local streets.
• NCE is recognized as a leading pavement expert and will continue to utilize our research with FHWA and Caltrans and experience to bear for selection of pavement materials for the City.
• Familiarity with local regulations and working with Bay Area cities, utilities, and communities.
• Ability to work as a partner and extension of City staff.
• Tailored approach with cost-effective and deliberate pavement strategies with proven long-term performance balanced with other factors such as minimizing traffic impacts and inconveniences to residents and businesses.
FISCAL IMPACT
This project (CIP No. st2107) is a new project and was not previously included in the City of South San Francisco’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Capital Improvements Program. Staff requests the approval of Budget Amendment Number 21.044, transfer from Road Maintenance (SB1) Fund (212) to cover the initial consultant fees for services including project management, pavement design and regulatory compliance. It is staff’s intention to go to the bond market and procure remaining funds for this project. This will occur in the first/second quarter of 2021 with the intention of having the funding available in time to meet the payment requirements for remaining design services.
Total Project Design Budget $1,755,600
Source of Funds
Road Maintenance (SB1) Fund 212 $500,000
Bond Measure $1,255,600
Total Sources $1,755,600
The City has prepared a consulting service agreement for a two (2) year term starting March 22, 2021 and ending March 22, 2023. This aligns with the anticipated schedule for the design and the construction project.
Phase Start End
Pavement Design March 2021 May 2021
60% & 90% PS&E April 2021 September 2021
100% & Final Bid Set PS&E September 2021 November 2021
Bidding & Award November 2021 February 2022
Pavement Rehabilitation Construction Project April 2022 October 2022
RELATIONSHIP TO STRATEGIC PLAN
Approval of this action will contribute to the City’s Strategic Plan. It aligns with Priority #2, which is focused on enhancing quality of life by building and maintaining a sustainable city, making our city a great place to live, learn and play.
CONCLUSION
Staff recommends the City Council adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a consulting services agreement with NCE based on their qualifications, experience, references and understanding of the project.
Attachments:
1. Presentation
2. NCE Proposal