CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Authorize staff to use a modified procurement process with a limited field of consultants for the design of the Special Service Area #30 streetscape, roadway and utility improvements (RFP 19-112)
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: William J. Novack, Director of TED/City Engineer
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
NA
BACKGROUND:
On March 5, 2019, City Council directed staff to prepare an ordinance to establish Special Service Area #30 (SSA #30) for streetscape improvements with the property owners paying 40% of the streetscape costs if fewer than fifty percent of the property owners objected over the next sixty days. The proposed improvements (both SSA eligible and City-funded public improvements) associated with SSA #30 include:
Ø New streetscape on both sides of Main Street from Jackson to Jefferson and on the south side of Jefferson Avenue from Main to Webster
Ø The conversion of angled parking to parallel parking on the east side of Main Street and the south side of Jefferson Avenue
Ø Installation of an underground electric duct bank on Jefferson Avenue
Ø Replacement of the watermain on both Jefferson Avenue and Main Street
Ø Reconstruction of Jefferson Avenue between Main Street and Webster Street and Main Street between Jefferson Avenue and Jackson Avenue
This project initially started as a limited property owner streetscape improvement. The Rubin Partnership hired Hitchcock Design Group and Roake and Associates to provide professional services for the preparation of the streetscape and engineering plans. During 2018 and the early portion of 2019, Hitchcock Design Group (Hitchcock) prepared the preliminary streetscape design, schematic design and portions of final design and cost estimates for the streetscape improvements. Roake and Associates, which has recently become a part of Civil Environmental Consultants (Roake/CEC), provided the survey work for the improvements.
Staff desires to initiate the procurement process to hire an engineering consultant to provide the professional design services needed to prepare the streetscape and engineering construction plans for the SSA #30 improvements. Staff’s plan is to award the design contract right after the approval of the ordinance for SSA #30. This will allow completion of design by the end of the year, so the project can be bid in early 2020 and construction can commence in March 2020.
DISCUSSION:
This is a unique project in that it touches on several different areas, including streetscape, utility and roadway design. Making it even more challenging is that the consultant will have to engage with the downtown property owners and merchants in determining the least impactful way to stage the work and construct the improvements. This will be a very high-profile construction project with high impact, so an excellent plan needs to be developed.
Two City departments, the Water Utilities and TED, have shortlists of prequalified consultants to design utility and roadway improvements resulting from RFQ 18-064 and 18-032, respectively. The Water Utilities has five consultants that are prequalified to perform utility design while TED has six consultants prequalified to perform roadway design services. Staff could simply develop a scope of work, approach these two groups of consultants and request that they submit a cost proposal for the work. The lowest of these competitive cost proposals would be awarded the contract.
As noted in a separate agenda item, staff is requesting that City Council waive the Procurement Code to reimburse the Rubin Partnership for the preliminary work that Hitchcock and Roake/CEC performed so that the City can provide their work products to the selected engineering consultant, so their cost proposal can be lowered. Because of the work Hitchcock and Roake/CEC have performed for this project, both firms have momentum and unique knowledge about this project. Both firms are skilled and have performed these types of designs for other recent downtown projects. Hitchcock provided the streetscape design for the Water Street project while Roake/CEC has performed the engineering and site design for the Main Street Promenade, the Main Street Promenade East and the 41 W Jefferson Avenue projects.
Staff believes there would be additional value added to the City if the competition for the design of the project was broadened to include these two firms. We believe this is appropriate since both firms have displayed their strong qualifications with their previous work in downtown Naperville.
Staff is therefore requesting City Council concurrence to modify the procurement process to seek competitive cost proposals for the design of the SSA #30 improvements (RFP 19-112) from the five prequalified Water Utilities firms, the six prequalified TED firms, and Hitchcock and Roake/CEC. If either Hitchcock or Roake/CEC are the lowest bidder, then City Council will need to waive the Procurement Code when the award of the design contract comes back for City Council action.
FISCAL IMPACT:
While staff is not able to quantify the savings associated with including these two firms in the RFP process, additional qualified competition usually results in lower bid pricing.