Title
Department of Transportation recommending the Board take the following actions related to the Oflyng Water Quality Project (located along Oflyng Drive) - Phase 2, Project number 36107016, Contract number 9322:
1) Retroactively approve and authorize the Board Chair to execute Contract Change Order 2 with Parsons Walls in the amount of $64,296.95 (4/5 vote required); and
2) Find that an exception to the competitive bidding requirement exists for Contract Change Order 2, as competitive bidding would have been impractical for the work required.
(District 5)
FUNDING: United States Forest Service (82%), Conservancy Funds (1%), State Water Resource Control Board (4%), and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency/Water Quality (13%).
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The Oflyng Water Quality Project - Phase 2 (Project) is located within an existing residential development located in the unincorporated area of South Lake Tahoe. The site lies east of U.S. Highway 50/State Route 89, north of Pioneer Trail, west of Elks Club Drive, and south of Skyline Drive. The Project replaces failed gunite walls from the 1950s with new rockery walls. The Project is part of an ongoing effort to retrofit County rights-of-way within the Lake Tahoe Basin with improvements that will reduce the amount of sediment that reaches Lake Tahoe. The Project will help to meet goals identified in the El Dorado County Stormwater Resource Plan and the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program.
On April 8, 2025 (Legistar 25-0563, Item 14), the Board approved contract 9322 for the Oflyng Water Quality Project - Phase 2 (Project). Construction was completed on June 26, 2025, and Board acceptance is planned for a future date.
Pursuant to Board Resolution 102-2012, the maximum authority delegated to the Director of Transportation for approval of a single contract change order (CCO) on this Project is $20,372.34. Also, pursuant to Board Resolution 102-2012, the cumulative value of all CCOs on this Project must not exceed $20,372.34.
Transportation executed CCO 1 on June 20, 2025, in the amount of $9,900.00 to add some paving and temporary concrete railing to the Project. CCO 2 was required to construct an additional 1,007 square feet of rockery wall on Oflyng Drive when existing gunite walls adjoining the Project limits failed during construction. For CCO 2, Transportation and the Contractor agreed to use the Contractor's competitively bid item price for the rockery wall work in the original contract for the additional 1,007 square feet of new rockery wall. This resulted in a cost of $64,296.95 for CCO 2, which exceeds delegated department authority for both an individual CCO and cumulative CCOs on the Project. CCO 2 is presented retroactively because Transportation staff determined that it was in the County's best interest to contemporaneously authorize the extra work concurrently with the current Project. Had staff delayed work for several weeks to seek prior Board approval of CCO 2 before authorizing the Contractor to start work on CCO 2, the County would have been exposed to costly delay claims from the Contractor, and the project may have extended into another construction season.
Since the limit of the cumulative value of all CCOs as prescribed by Board Resolution 102-2012 has been surpassed on this Project, any future CCO that might be required during closeout of this Project will be brought to the Board for approval.
Waiver of Competitive Bidding
Public Contract Code section 20137 requires that changes to public works contracts exceeding 10% of the original contract amount be subject to competitive bidding. However, a well-established exception to this requirement applies when the nature of the work is such that competitive bidding would be unavailing or would not yield any practical or economic benefit - making advertisement for competitive bids undesirable, impractical, or impossible (Graydon v. Pasadena Redevelopment Agency (1980) 104 Cal.App.3d 631). The courts developed this exception to ensure the competitive bidding requirement is applied reasonably and in the public interest, emphasizing the need to secure the most cost-effective outcome for the use of public funds. When competitive proposals would not result in any advantage to the public entity, or when public bidding is impractical or impossible, competitive bidding may be waived.
The specific circumstances concerning this project supports the conclusion that competitive bidding for the work described in CCO 2 would have been undesirable and impractical and would not have resulted in the best economic result for the public. The work described in CCO 2 is functionally integrated with the base scope of the Project and immediately adjoins the Project limits. The work described in CCO 2 is not standalone work that could have been subject to competitive bidding. For this reason, Transportation recommends the Board find that an exception to the competitive bidding requirement exists in this instance and that a waiver of competitive bidding is appropriate.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board could choose not to approve the change order. Parsons Walls would likely file a claim against the County to recuperate monies expended during the completion of the extra work.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
April 8, 2025 - Legistar file 25-0563, Item 14 - Award of the Construction Contract to Parsons Walls.
March 4, 2025 - Legistar file 25-0138, Item 8 - Approval and adoption of the Plans and Contract Documents and Authorization to Advertise the Project.
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
N/A
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
All funding for CCOs or any other cost increase on this Project will be provided by TRPA mitigation funds, which are already funding a portion of the Project.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
1) The Clerk of the Board will obtain the Board Chair's signature on CCO 2.
2) The Clerk of the Board will return a fully executed copy of CCO 2 to Transportation, Headington Engineering, attention Matt Gourley, for further processing.
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
N/A
CONTACT
Rafael Martinez, Director
Department of Transportation