CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the award of Bid 19-325, Bridge and Retaining Wall Railing Maintenance, to Northern Contracting, Inc. for an amount not to exceed $102,778, plus a 5% contingency
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: William J. Novack, Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The City maintains 102 handrails at 37 locations throughout the City, which are found on bridges, retaining walls, culverts and bicycle paths. The handrails are composed of various materials including steel, aluminum, chain link fence and wood, and they have various coatings applied such as paint, powder coating, and galvanizing. The condition of the 37 handrails varies from very poor to very good. Very good handrails tend to be galvanized or newly painted while the very poor handrails exhibit extensive rusting and section loss throughout. Handrails rated as fair have minor paint loss and rusting at localized areas due to the paint or powder coating starting to deteriorate.
The Transportation, Engineering and Development (TED) Business Group developed a biennial Handrail Maintenance Program to improve the condition of these handrails. Year one of the program will commence in 2020 and includes 13 locations:
• Jefferson Avenue Bridge
• Bailey Road Bridge
• West Street Culvert over Cress Creek
• Burning Tree Lane Culvert over Cress Creek
• Royal Saint George Drive Box Culvert over Cress Creek
• McDowell Road Culvert
• Rickert Drive Culvert
• 248th Avenue Box Culvert over Clow Creek
• Pradel Drive Culvert over Clow Creek
• Clearwater Lane Culvert over Clow Creek
• Golden Gate Lane Box Culvert
• Hobson Mill Drive Culvert
• Washington Street Retaining Wall North of Ring Road
The scope of work will vary with each location and may include work such as fully removing and replacing handrails, cleaning and welding handrails, fully removing and replacing chain link fences, cleaning and painting small portion of handrails, cleaning and painting large portions of the handrails, replacing chain link fabrics and cleaning the rails. Also, many of the locations will involve vegetation removal.
In August 2019, the TED Business Group issued Bid 19-241, Bridge and Retaining Wall Railing Maintenance, to select a qualified and experienced contractor to repair the 13 handrail locations. The City received 0 bids.
Based on feedbacks from contractors, we revised the scope of work and specifications. Trying to take advantage of the fact that November is when contractors are starting to line up for work in 2020, the City rebid the work in November 2019 as Bid 19-325. This time the City received bids from 2 contractors - Northern Contracting, Inc. and Kovilic Construction Company.
DISCUSSION:
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Advertisement Date: |
11/13/19 |
Notices Sent: |
59 |
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Opening Date: |
12/16/19 |
Planholders: |
15 |
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Proposals Received: |
2 |
Bids were received from the following vendors:
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Vendor Name |
Proposed Cost |
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Engineer’s Estimate |
$85,400 |
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Northern Contracting, Inc. |
$257,241 |
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Kovilic Construction Company |
$381,000 |
The bids received were considerably higher than the City’s estimate. After discussing the bids with the City’s consultant, TransSytems, the following factors may have contributed to the higher costs from the vendors:
• For the Jefferson Avenue and Bailey Road locations, the much higher prices are likely based on the fact that Northern is proposing to completely remove and replace both handrails. The costs are also inflated by the short construction duration allowed at the site (21 days). Further, the bridge is also over the DuPage River and additional cost may have been included to protect the waterway from cleaning debris.
• For the Rickert Drive and Clearwater Lane locations, the removal of vegetation within 10’ of the railing may include some large trees that are nearby, which could have added significant cost to the work. These two locations are also adjacent to a waterway, and additional cost may have been included to protect the waterways from cleaning debris.
Since this is a construction bid, the Procurement Code allows for the City to negotiate a reduced scope of work with Northern Contracting when the cost is over the total available funds when time or economic considerations preclude the City from resoliciting the work. After discussing with Northern Contracting, it was agreed by both parties that the Jefferson Avenue and Bailey Road Bridge locations (combined cost of $154,463) will be omitted from this year’s program and re-programmed to later years. Instead of having 13 locations completed in Year One, only 11 locations will be repaired in 2020 at a total amount not to exceed $102,778.
The completion date for this project is November 1, 2020.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP #: BR032
Handrail maintenance is expensed to the infrastructure account listed below. $0 was budgeted for BR032 in 2020, as this was originally planned in 2019. This project will be funded through expected project deferrals and reprogramming of dollars that takes place each year. For reference, approximately $2.5 million worth of projects were reprogrammed out of 2019 throughout the course of the year.
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Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Budget Amount |
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30282200-551502 |
Capital Projects |
$8,519,000 |
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*Per Council directive, contingency on construction projects is set at 3% on projects over $500,000 and 5% on projects under $500,000.