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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Packet 07/09/2002 Mtt~tw tu.~f{\" ~~l,,p ;_~s~~ ~ORTANGELES . WAS H I N G TON, U. S. A. I. CITY OF PORT ANGELES CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING CALL TO ORDER - REGULAR MEETING: I II. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Mayor Wiggins Councilman Braun Councilman Campbell Councilmember Erickson Councilman Headrick Councilmember Rogers Councilman Williams Staff Present: Manager Quinn Attorney Knutson Clerk Upton B. Collins M. Connelly G. Cutler D. McKeen T. Riepe y. Ziomkowski III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by: / v" ,/ J/ J/ r/ v v .,/ ,/ July 9. 2002 q: 3() Other Staff Present: CITY OF PORT ANGELES · ~ORTAN'GELES WAS H I N G TON. U, 5, A, CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING Attendance Roster DATE OF MEETING: July 9. 2002 LOCATION: City Council Chambers FORTANGELES WASHINGTON U. S. A. CITY COUNCIL MEMO DATE: July 9, 2002 To: MAYOR WIGGINS AND CITY COUNCIL FROM: Glenn A. Cutler, Director of Public Works and Utilities SUBJECT: Contract for Peabody Heights Floating Cover, Project No. 20-26 Summary: Council tabled the issue of awarding the contract for the Peabody Heights Floating Cover at the July 2, 2002 Council meeting. This memo provides additional background information to assist Council in making a decision. Recommendation: Review the additional information and then reject the bids for Peabody Heights Floating Cover, Project No. 20-26, authorize staffto prepare revised contract documents for rebidding and direct the Director of Public Works and Utilities to rene otiate the Bilateral Com liance A reement with the De artment of Health. Background / Analysis: The Council tabled the issue concerning the award of the contract to cover the Peabody Heights Reservoir at the July 2, 2002 meeting. The July 2, 2002 memo recommending award is attached. The additional information is provided to assist Council in reaching a decision. Both bidders were informed on Wednesday, July 3,2002 that Council would be holding a special session today to consider the award of the contract. Section 8-301(8) ofthe contract specifications outlines the qualifications required for the manufacturer, fabricator, installer and field superintendent. The issue that is in question is the qualifications of the installer and the field superintendent. Portions of the specifications are provided for your information. 8-30.1 (8)C Qualifications of Installer The floating cover work shall be installed by the Installer who shall have been regularly engaged in the fabrication and installation of reinforced geomembranes for a minimum period of 5 years prior to the award of the work, installed not less than 5 million square feet of such membrane (including both liner and cover installations), and successfully completed installation of at least three floating cover projects using polypropylene materials. Furthermore, the installer shall have successfully completed four mechanically tensioned floating covers incorporating the use of weight towers or spring-loaded tensioners similar to the tensioning system proposed for this work (no substitutions accepted). Cover installations that are tensioned by the addition of sand tubes or other weights to the cover will not be considered equivalent experience to mechanical tensioned floating covers. CW Neal: Fully meets the specifications. Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products: Does not meet the requirements for having successfully completed four mechanically tensioned floating covers incorporating the use of weight towers or spring-loaded tensioners similar to the tensioning system proposed for this work (no substitutions accepted). Has successfully performed work on the liner of Peabody Heights Reservoir in the past. Has successfully installed fabric at the Port Angeles Landfill. No claims against performance and payment bonds past 9 years. Fabrication and installation of reinforced geomembranes: Required: 5 years experience 5,000,000 square feet installed Actual: 30+ years experience 13,000,000+ square feet installed Floating covers: Required: 3 Actual: 22 Mechanically tensioned floating covers: Required: 4 Actual: 0 NW Linings has over 26 years experience installing floating covers not including mechanically tensioned covers, totaling over 1.3 million square feet. Jobs include floating covers installed for ITT Rayonier in Port Angeles, Cities ofBremerton, Everett and Marysville, Hickam AFB in Honolulu and US Fish & Wildlife Service in Richland, Washington. There are two current support staff with cable tensioned floating cover experience acquired under another firm. They both were involved in installing covers for Highland Reservoir Nos. 1 & 2 near Reno, Nevada, which were 200,000 and 300,000 square feet respectively: Tracey Larson was project manager for these two projects,.and would coordinate the Peabody Heights cover project. Dwight Pattee was the regional Operations Manager for the two Reno projects, and would be overseeing the Peabody Heights project from the office. 8-30.1(8)D Qualifications of Installer's Field Superintendent The Installer shall hire and assign, exclusively to the project, a field superintendent who has not less than 5 years and 3 million square feet of experience in the installation of reinforced geomembrane and who has supervised a minimum of four floating covers, including at least two polypropylene floating cover projects and also at least two mechanically tensionedfloating cover systems similar to the tensioning system proposed for this work (no substitutions ',',,',:;O.,,:"i,',",' accepted). Companies that procure employees from other entities cannot submit the job history of other such employees for work performed with other entities to qualify for the experience required herein. Such experience, as acquired through other than the Installer itself, shall be considered proxy experience and shall not be allowed. If the field superintendent is deemed not qualified by the Engineer, the Installer shall not employ such superintendent on this project. Any field superintendent employed by the Installer shall be replaced if his performance on the work is determined by the Engineer to be unsatisfactory. Any superintendent substituted for the floating cover superintendent originally assigned by the Installer shall meet the same minimum requirements specified herein. Before substituting another field superintendent, the Installer shall furnish to the Engineer, for approval, a written statement of qualifications for the proposed substitute. CW Neal: Fully meets the specifications. Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products: Does not meet the specifications in that the proposed field superintendent did not gain the required experience with Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products. Donald VanHouten, Sr. would be the Field Superintendent for this project who gained the required experience with another company. His experience is as follows: Fabrication and installation of reinforced geomembranes: Required: 5 years experience 3,000,000 square feet installed Actual: 12+ years experience 16,000,000+ square feet installed Floating covers: Required: Actual: 4 7 Polypropylene floating covers: Required: 2 Actual: 4 Mechanically tensioned floating covers: Required: 2 Actual: 2 (1997, 1999) Bid Protest: CW Neal has indicated it will seek legal recourse if it is not awarded the contract. Attached is a copy ofthe 7/5/02 letter of protest that CW Neal submitted. The City's vulnerability is that the court could declare a contract awarded to NW linings to be invalid. This would leave the City with the option of awarding to CW Neal or rebidding. CW Neal's letter is correct that the City ordinarily must reject bids that don't materially comply with the specifications. On the other hand, it is also true that bid specifications may not be unduly restrictive and that public agencies can deviate from the bid specifications ifthe change is an ''unsubstantial variance." It may be argued that the bid specifications were too restrictive in that only one bidder was able to meet the specifications. However, given the strong wording used in the specifications regarding qualifications and experience, it would be difficult to argue that allowing lesser qualifications and experience would be an unsubstantial variance. Therefore, the safest. option from the legal perspective would be either to award to CW Neal or to reject the bids, redraft the specifications, and rebid. Options available to Council: 1 - Award to Northwest Linings & Geotexti1e Products 2 - Reject bid of Northwest Linings & Geotexti1e Products and award to CW Neal 3 - Reject all bids and re-so1icit. Implications of re-solicitation: 1 - Will not meet Bilateral Compliance Agreement(BCA) dated of March 31, 2003. (Extended from December 31, 2002. Washington Department of Health compliance officer and Regional Engineer have expressed a willingness to extend the BCA date but have not/nor will they give a firm commitment until the details are placed in writing and due consideration is given.) 2 - Re-solicitation will put the project into rainy season and will cause costs to increase unless we wait until next year. 3 - Work should be performed prior to potential high demand periods(Ju1y and August) and not during rainy season(mid-October to April). Dates are approximate. 4- Bids may go up or down. 5 - Funds are budgeted and will be available next year if needed. 6 - Additional minor costs for re-so1icitation. 7 - Avoid uncertainty and cost of litigation. Conclusion: It is recommended that the bids be rejected, because only one bidder is responsive and the price is significantly over the engineer's estimate. It is also recommended that staffbe directed to redraft the contract documents to encourage additional competition, rebid the project, and renegotiate the BCA with the Department of Health. Attachment: July 2, 2002 City Council Memo CW Nea11tr of July 5, 2002 N:\PROJECTS\20-26 Peab. Hts. Res. Floating Cover\CCAward_B.wpd DATE: To: FROM: SUBJECT: ~ORTANGELES WAS H I N G TON, U. S. A. CITY COUNCIL MEMO July 2, 2002 MAYOR WIGGINS AND CITY COUNCIL Glenn A. Cutler, Director of Public Works and Utilities ~ Award the Contract for Peabody Heights Floating Cover, Project No. 20-26 Summary: Bids were requested to install a floating cover and appurtenances for the Peabody Heights Reservoir. Two bids were received and opened on May 29, 2002.. Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products, Inc. submitted the lowest responsive bid in the amount of$312~616.85, including tax. The engineer's estimate for this project was $324,600.00. Recommendation: Award the contract for Peabody Heights Floating Cover, Project No. 20-26, to Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products, of Kent, Washington, in the bid amount of $312,616.85 and authorize the Mayor to si2n the Contract. Background I Analysis: The City is required to cover three water reservoirs to meet the requirements of a bilateral compliance agreement with the Washington State Department of Health. This project, which will provide a cover for the Peabody heights Reservoir, is the third and last of the three reservoirs to be covered. The first phase of the project;installing a cover for the;Jones Street Reservoir, was completed in 1999. The second phase, installing a cover for the Black Diamond Reservoir, was completed in May 2002. Funding for the reservoir covering projects comes froin a combination of (1) a $463,500 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan, (2) a $1,168,300 Public Works Trust Fund Loan, and (3) $80,700 from the Water Utility. The Department of Public Works & Utilities' engineering consultant, CH2M Hill, completed the design for all three phases. The Peabody Heights Floating Cover project consistS of providing a polypropylene floating cover for the reservoir and ;related appurtenances. A floating cover was shown to be the most appropriate type of cover for this reservoir because of the size and geometry. A rigid cover was estimated to cost at least four times as much as a floating cover to fabricate and install. 5 July 2, 2002 City Council RE: Contract for Peabody Heights Floating Cover, Project 20-26 Page 2 A bid package and engineering estimate was prepared by Ch2M Hill and the project advertised. Bids were opened on May 29, 2002. The bid results shown below have been corrected as needed in accordance with the specifications: CW Neal C.~ "....-:-lJ.:.~.. Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products $312,616.85 $371,544.29 $324,600.00 Engineer's Estimate Prequalification criteria in the specifications included requirements for experience by the bidder as well as its project superintendent. At the time when the project documents were being put together, there were three contractors in the United States that could meet the experience criteria. However, by the time this project went to bid, one of the firms (Serrott) had merged with a larger corporation and was no longer in the business of constructing floating covers, and another firm (GSE) had decided not to pursue construction any more of this type of floating cover due to the limitedmarket. This left CW Neal as the only firm that had both the required experience constructing this type of floating cover and a project superintendent that met the experience criteria. In evaluating both bids, we investigated the experience criteria that was submitted as well as each contractor's general experience in fabricating and installing polypropylene structures. Northwest Linings proposed three key personnel for the job. This included the project superintendent, who had worked for Serrott and had the experience criteria required. Northwest Linings is familiar with the facility, as they had installed the geotextile liner for Peabody Heights Reservoir in 1993, and completed repairs to it in 2001. This information, as well as the fact that CH2M Hill would be providing construction inspection services during installation of the cover, showed us that Northwest Linings should be able to complete the work satisfactorily. Northwest Linings' bid is 4% below the engineer's estimate. Their bid is appropriate considering the engineer' s estimate and other bids received. Review of their experience, bonding and references demonstrate that they are a responsible bidder and qualified to perform this work. There is $550,000 budgeted in 2002 for this Water Utility project. Work on the shop drawings and fabrication of the cover should start as soon as the bid is awarded. While some site work will occur earlier, installation of the floating cover is expected to begin in early September and completed within one month. N:\PROJECTS\20-26 Peab. Hts. Res. Floating Cover\CCAward.wpd 6 since 1967 http://www.cwneal.com July 3,2002 City Engineer City of Port Angeles, Washington Department of Public Works and Utilities 321 East Fifth Street P. O. Box 1150 Port Angeles, Washington 98362 City Council c/o City Clerk City of Port Angeles 321 East Fifth Street P. O. Box 1150 Port Angeles, Washington 98362 Re: Peabody Heights Floating Cover Project 20-26 Subject: Protest of Proposed Award to Northwest Linings Dear Sirs: By this correspondence, C. W. Neal Corporation protests the proposed award ofthe Peabody Heights Floating Cover project to Northwest Linings on the grounds they do not satisfy the minimum technical qualifications required by the contract specifications for the Peabody Heights Floating'Cover project and are therefore not a responsive nor responsible contractor. Based on the foregoing, it is respectfully requested that you reject the bid of Northwest Linings on the above referenced project and instead award this contract to C.W. Neal Corporation as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Sincerely, (\ I ~eLJ. ~ ~LJ~' Charles W. "Skip" Neal II President cc: Kevin Carlin, Perkins & Miltner, LLP ""',"",,,,"","''-'.'., since 1967 http://www.cwneal.com July 3, 2002 City Engineer City of Port Angeles, Washington Department of Public Works and Utilities 321 East Fifth Street P. O. Box 1150 Port Angeles, Washington 98362 City Council c/o City Clerk City of Port Angeles 321 East Fifth Street. P. O. Box 1150 Port Angeles, Washington 98362 Re: Peabody Heights Floating Cover Project 20-26 Subject: Protest of Proposed Award to Northwest Linings Dear Sirs: By this correspondence, C. W. Neal Corporation protests the proposed award ofthe Peabody Heights Floating Cover project to Northwest Linings on the grounds they do not satisfy the minimum technical qualifications required by the contract specifications for the Peabody Heights Floating Cover project and are therefore not a responsive nor responsible contractor. Based on the foregoing, it is respectfully requested that you reject the bid of Northwest Linings on the above referenced project and instead award this contract to C.W. Neal Corporation as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Sincerely, (\. I l~ 'eLJ ~ ~LJ\~ Charles W. "Skip" Neal II President cc: Kevin Carlin, Perkins & Miltner, LLP J