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AGENDA BILL Agenda Item No. 5(F) Date: May 7, 2013 To: El Cerrito City Council From: Yvetteh Ortiz, Engineering Manager Jerry Bradshaw, Public Works Director/City Engineer Subject: Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project, City Project No. C-3063-A, Federal Project No. CML-5239 (020) ACTION REQUESTED Adopt a resolution which will result in the following actions: 1) Approve plans for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project; 2) Reject the bid from Sposeto Engineering, Inc. as non-responsive and accept all other bids; 3) Amend the Capital Improvement Program to appropriate an amount not to exceed $100,000 of available Measure A Street Improvement Funds for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project; and 4) Authorize the City Manager to award a contract, contingent on successful negotiations with McGuire and Hester Corporation (the lowest responsible bidder for the project) for a deductive change order after undergoing a value engineering process which is not inconsistent with the revised budget for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project, City Project No. C-3063-A. BACKGROUND Project Description The Central Avenue and Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project is intended to improve walking and biking routes to transit, support high-density infill development, and enhance the sense of place and quality of life in the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station Area. This project arose out of various efforts in the City of El Cerrito. Through its General Plan policies, Circulation Plan, and Draft San Pablo Specific Plan, the City has identified the El Cerrito Plaza area as a high-activity node and has identified the need for streetscape improvements to enhance pedestrian and bicycle facilities to businesses and transit. Central Avenue and Fairmount Avenue play key roles in the Plaza Area as the ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(F) Page 2 primary east-west corridors for travel. Liberty Street, bordering the main BART parking lot, connects these corridors and leads directly into the Plaza shopping center. The project is located on four blocks of Central Avenue from San Pablo Avenue to the Ohlone Greenway and one block of Liberty Street from Central Avenue to Fairmount Avenue. The project is within El Cerrito’s San Pablo Avenue Priority Development Area approved by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The primary project elements include sidewalk replacement, decorative concrete on median noses, pedestrian-level lighting, curb bulb-outs, curb ramps, high-visibility crosswalk signing and striping, bike route signing and striping, and street trees. Grant Funding The project is funded by two separate Transportation for Livable Communities Programs. The first is a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality, federal grant in the amount of $816,000 from the Contra Costa County Portion of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC’s) Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Program. The second is a Measure J, countywide half-cent sales tax grant in the amount of $204,000. Public Works staff applied for the two competitive grants in early 2010, and the City was fortunate in being awarded both of them in the summer of 2010. In October 2010, the City Council approved Resolution 2010-64 authorizing the City Manager to execute a Cooperative Agreement between the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) for the use of Measure J funds on this project. In April 2011, the City also received authorization to proceed with the use of the federal grant on the design phase of the project. Coordination with BART City staff has closely coordinated the scope of sidewalk and tree work around the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station with BART, due to a pending transfer of sidewalk ownership from BART to the City. The tree roots located within the sidewalk areas around the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station have displaced the sidewalk, curb, gutter and street surface in numerous locations and many trees are close to the end of their safe and useful life expectancy. BART and the City were both able to secure different funding sources for various pedestrian, bicycle, accessibility, landscaping and lighting improvements around the BART Station. Sidewalk and tree replacement on Richmond Street, Willow Street and Central Avenue, between Richmond Street and the Ohlone Greenway, is part of BART’s Sidewalk and Wayfinding Improvements Project, for which construction was completed earlier this year. The work on Liberty Street and the remaining section of Central Avenue will be part of the City’s project. Prior Negotiations and Project Re-bidding The Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project was originally bid in the summer of 2012. The bids received were significantly over the project budget. The City Council, at its November 20, 2012 meeting approved Resolution No. ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(F) Page 3 2012-87 transferring an amount not to exceed $160,000 of Measure A Street Improvement Funds to the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project; and authorized the City Manager to award a contract if a value engineering deductive change order could be negotiated with the low bid contractor to bring the project within the new budget. Staff met several times with the low bid contractor and discussed various approaches to reducing project costs; including minor reductions in scope that would not compromise grant goals, less constrictive construction staging, minor design changes, alternate construction methods and bid item unit price reductions. Both parties exchanged various proposals but were not able to agree on a change order that would bring the project within budget. Negotiations were concluded in early February 2013. Soon after negotiations were concluded, Public Works staff re-bid the project with minor changes to the project plans and significant restructuring of the bid proposal to include additional alternative items. The restructured bid proposal was intended to facilitate reducing project costs if the new bids were again outside the project budget. The project was re-advertised for bid in the West County Times on February 19 and 25, and March 4, 2013. Notices were also mailed directly to plan rooms on our bidders list. ANALYSIS Three bids were received on March 14, 2013 with the following results for the Base Bid plus Additional Bid Items One through Four: Name Location Bid McGuire & Hester Oakland $ 1,066,907.00 Redgwick Construction Company Newark $ 1,096,940.50 Sposeto Engineering Livermore $ Rejected Engineer’s Estimate $ 1,086,001.68 The bid from Sposeto Engineering was received after 2:00 p.m., the time bids were advertised to be received. As such, staff recommends rejection of Sposeto Engineering’s bid as non-responsive. As specified in the bid documents, the low bid is determined by the total of the Base Bid plus Additional Bid Items One through Four. The lowest responsive, responsible bidder was McGuire and Hester Corporation (Contractor’s License # 95879, Class A) with a total bid of $1,066,907. This amount, as well as, the various combinations of the Base Bid and additive and deductive items are outside the approved project budget. ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(F) Page 4 As with the previous project bidding, staff has considered various options: 1. Reject all bids, redesign the project, and go out to bid again. With prices rising, staff does not recommend this option as it would take longer and expose the City to even higher prices. 2. Award the project and rely on the value engineering process to reduce the total project costs through deductive change orders. Staff has worked with the designers on several value engineering options to lower the project costs without jeopardizing any of the major elements of the project or the intent of the original federal grant. However, we do not anticipate achieving enough savings to make the current budget work. 3. Secure additional funding. As before, staff contacted the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), this county’s congestion management agency through which federal transportation grants are passed, and found that the upcoming One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) funding was still eligible for this project. OBAG is allocating to municipalities in the county an amount of funding for street paving. For El Cerrito, this amount is set at $630,060. CCTA staff indicated that if we desired to use this money for other federal-eligible projects, we could apply to redirect it accordingly. Again, however, the timing of the grant combined the federal processing requirements does not work well with the timing of this project and could delay it for several months. Based on this, staff is recommending that an additional amount of Measure A Street Improvement Funds be used to make up the current funding shortfall. Since both our local Measure A funding and the OBAG funding would ultimately be used for street paving, either source would have the same net effect with one exception: by preserving OBAG funding for street paving, that money can only be used on arterial and collector streets whereas Measure A funds may be used on local streets as well. However, that does not pose a disadvantage since arterials and collectors are being planned for paving work in the coming few years. As with the prior Council action in November 2012, staff is recommending a combined approach of value engineering and additional funding. Because we are still in the competitive bidding process, the City cannot negotiate with any bidder. Therefore, we cannot know the actual value of a deductive change. Staff has conservatively estimated that approximately $225,000 can be deducted from the low bid through elimination of additive bid items, value engineering changes, and other deductions similar to those considered during the prior negotiations. Staff is estimating that approximately $52,000 of additional Measure A funds would be needed to cover the remaining shortfall. Staff is requesting authorization for up to $100,000 of additional funding to allow for the uncertainty of the negotiation process that lies ahead. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS This project is originally funded through the federal TLC grant with matching funds from the Measure J TLC program for a total original project budget of $1,020,000. The ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. S(F) additional $160,000 from Measure A awarded by Council in November 2012 brought the total current project budget to $1,180,000. With an additional $100,000 from Measure A, the proposed project budget is $1,280,000. If staff is successful in deducting more from the project through the value engineering process, a corresponding lower amount of Measure A funds would be transferred. Impact to Measure A Paving Program: The Measure A Street Improvement fund (211) began the fiscal year with available funds of approximately $350,000. Since then, Council appropriated $78,000 for the Moeser-Ashbury project (C3061), leaving ample funds this fiscal year for this requested appropriation with no negative impact on the City's paving program. Below is a summary of the original costs, costs revised in November 2012, and currently estimated costs. This also includes revisions to the original estimated costs for design and construction phase soft costs. Design Construction Contract Construction Contingency Construction Management Total Approved Budget Surplus (Shortfall) Scott Hanin, City Manager Attachments: Original Cost $110,000 $725,000 $114,000 $71,000 $1,020,000 1. Accompanying Resolution Page 5 Revised Cost- November 2012 $150,000 $783,000 $78,300 $117,400 $1,128,700 Currently Estimated Costs $156,000 $842,847 $84,825 $148,427 $1,232,099 1,180,000 ($52,099) ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. Attachment 1 RESOLUTION 2013–XX RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EL CERRITO AMENDING THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM TO APPROPRIATE AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $100,000 OF MEASURE A STREET IMPROVEMENT FUNDS FOR THE CENTRAL AVENUE & LIBERTY STREET STREETSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO AWARD A CONTRACT TO MCGUIRE AND HESTER CORPORATION IN AN AMOUNT TO BE DETERMINED AFTER UNDERGOING A VALUE ENGINEERING PROCESS FOR THE CENTRAL AVENUE & LIBERTY STREET STREETSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, CONTRACT NO. C-3063A WHEREAS, the City Council previously authorized bids for this project as part of the Capital Improvement Program; and WHEREAS, the project was advertised for bids on February 19 and 25, and March 4, 2013 and three bids were received on March 14, 2013; and WHEREAS, the bid received by Sposeto Engineering is determined to be non-responsive; and WHEREAS, the lowest responsive, responsible bidder was McGuire and Hester Corporation whose total bid, in the amount of $1,066,907, was above the Engineer’s Estimate; and WHEREAS, staff intends to pursue value engineering options to reduce project costs without jeopardizing any of the critical elements of the project or the intent of the original federal grant application; and WHEREAS, the current funding for this project is provided through the Contra Costa County Portion of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC’s) Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Program, the Measure J – TLC Program, and Measure A Street Improvement Funds; and WHEREAS, Measure A Street Improvement funds are eligible for roadway projects such as this; and WHEREAS, the City has the authority to authorize the City Manager to award the contract for this project pursuant to the established common-law doctrine articulated in the case of Graydon v. Pasadena Redevelopment Agency (1980) 104 Cal.App. 3d 631. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of El Cerrito hereby: 1) Approves plans for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvement Project; 2) Rejects the bid from Sposeto Engineering as non-responsive and accepts all other bids; 3) Amends the Capital Improvement Program to appropriate an amount not to exceed $100,000 of available Measure A Street Improvement Funds for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project; and 4) Authorizes the City Manager to award a contract, contingent on successful negotiations with McGuire and Hester Corporation (the lowest responsible bidder for the project) for a deductive change order after undergoing a value engineering process which is not ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. Attachment 1 inconsistent with the revised budget for the Central Avenue & Liberty Street Streetscape Improvements Project, City Project No. C-3063A. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution shall become effective immediately upon passage and adoption. I CERTIFY that at a regular meeting on May 7, 2013 the City Council of the City of El Cerrito passed this Resolution by the following vote: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: IN WITNESS of this action, I sign this document and affix the corporate seal of the City of El Cerrito on May XX, 2013. Cheryl Morse, City Clerk APPROVED: Gregory B. Lyman, Mayor