Title
Transportation Department recommending Chairman be authorized to sign Agreement for Services AGMT 06-1340 with Wood Rodgers, Inc. in the amount of $500,000 for the term June 26, 2007 through June 25, 2009 to provide geotechnical, design, environmental, survey, and construction support services for erosion control and water quality projects in the Tahoe Basin and adopt recommended findings.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve.
FUNDING: California Tahoe Conservancy, United States Forest Service, United States Bureau of Reclamation, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Mitigation Funds
Body
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BUDGET SUMMARY: |
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Total Estimated Cost |
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$500,000 |
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Funding |
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Budgeted |
$396,685 |
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New Funding |
$ |
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Savings |
$ |
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Other* |
$103,315 |
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Total Funding Available |
$500,000 |
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Change To Net County Cost |
$0 |
$0 |
* The Department anticipates budgeting $103,315 in the FY 08/09 Budget
Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost:
Funding will come from grants from the California Tahoe Conservancy, United States Forest Service, and United States Bureau of Reclamation, and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Mitigation Funds. There is no Net County Cost associated with this item.
Recent Modifications:
Based on direction resulting from ongoing discussions at meetings of the Board of Supervisors (Board) and County executive management, the Department of Transportation (Department) has revised its strategy for obtaining construction support services to assist in implementation of the Department's Environmental Improvement Program (EIP). The need for services for this Agreement will be triggered by the Notice to Proceed with the construction of the Christmas Valley Phase 1 Erosion Control and Stream Environment Zone (SEZ) Enhancement Project anticipated for July 18, 2007. The subject Agreement will be utilized for staff augmentation and when unanticipated services are needed on short notice. Some examples of these types of situations are detailed in the Reason for Recommendation section.
Background:
On March 8, 2006, the Department issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Statement of Interest to twenty-seven (27) consulting firms to provide construction support services for erosion control and water quality projects in the Tahoe Basin in conjunction with the EIP. Nine (9) firms responded. Staff within the Department, including outside review and participation by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), reviewed the firms' Statement of Qualifications for criteria such as experience, depth of personnel, and expertise. Wood Rodgers, Inc. and MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc. were selected as the two firms best able to provide the needed services. The Department previously received Board approval and entered into an Agreement with MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc. under a separate agenda item at the April 17, 2007 Board meeting.
The Purchasing Agent has reviewed the RFQ, responses received, and the evaluation criteria. The Purchasing Agent concurs that it is appropriate to contract with Wood Rodgers, Inc. for the provision of geotechnical, design, environmental, survey, and construction support services for erosion control and water quality projects in the Tahoe Basin, and that said contract is in compliance with Board of Supervisors Policy C-17, Sections 7.5 and 7.10.
Reason for Recommendation:
The Department is proposing to enter into an Agreement with Wood Rodgers, Inc (Wood Rodgers). Under the subject Agreement, Wood Rodgers will perform professional support services to assist Department staff in the delivery of EIP projects. Tasks may include, but are not limited to, construction support, construction inspection, materials testing, geotechnical services, environmental services, including biological studies, wetlands delineation, cultural resource studies and studies needed to prepare California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents, surveying services, including construction staking, and all other services necessary to design and implement EIP projects in the Tahoe Basin, including engineering design, project support, project delivery, mapping, and hydrology and hydraulic calculations.
Need for staff augmentation
The Department requires these engineering services to facilitate completion of the design and delivery of EIP projects and to augment existing staff due to the short duration of the construction season which does not justify additional full-time employees and also due to fluctuation in the annual allocation of grant funds. The Department has an immediate need to advance many of its projects to meet various grant and regulatory deadlines.
The Department is planning to have eight to nine construction projects under construction in the Tahoe Basin this summer and next, and it does not have sufficient staff to perform all of the required construction support/inspection and other engineering services required for all of these projects. Additionally, the geographic locations of each project make it difficult for staff to easily travel back and forth between project sites while performing the required duties for each project. Because of the upcoming heavy construction season workload, the distance between project sites, and time variables of project initiation and completion, the Department believes entering into two separate $500,000 construction support services contracts is the prudent strategy, so that if one consultant's forces are tied up with work elsewhere, the other consultant can be utilized to meet the Department's needs. The Department does not anticipate expending all of the monies on each of the two contracts, but needs to maintain this flexibility in the event one consultant contract is utilized to a greater extent than the other.
The Department’s EIP in the Tahoe Basin is supported entirely by grants from various local, state and federal agencies. There is a competitive component among the California EIP implementers with regard to receiving certain CTC grant monies, which is one of the Department's main funding sources in the Tahoe Basin. Each year, the Department receives a jurisdictional allocation of grant funding, which allows the Department to set sustainable staffing levels. The Department also has an opportunity to compete for additional grant monies with the other California EIP implementers. This fluctuation in grant funding from year to year makes it extremely difficult to adequately assess Department staffing levels in the Tahoe Basin. Given the short construction season in the Tahoe Basin and the specialized nature of construction support/inspection services, it is more practical and feasible to hire consultants than to hire staff, since this funding fluctuation precludes the ability of the Department to support this large staff during the winter season. Because the Department's Tahoe Engineering Division is staffed to handle predictable levels of grant funding, it is anticipated that there will be a continuing need for resource augmentation in the form of consultant services contracts.
Need for unanticipated services on short notice
Relative to the broad geotechnical and geological aspects of Tahoe projects, it is of additional significance to note that the Department does not have in its inventory and professional expertise the unique equipment required to accomplish the complex and essential services associated with these projects. Therefore, the Department has included geotechnical services in the proposed Agreement. The Department anticipates that Wood Rodgers will provide materials testing services in conjunction with construction inspection services for the Christmas Valley Phase 1 Erosion Control and SEZ Enhancement Project in the 2007 construction season and for the Angora 3A/3B Erosion Control Projects in the 2008 construction season. As outlined by the Department at the March 13, 2007 Board meeting for the West Slope’s geotechnical contracts, there may be instances in the Tahoe Basin where geotechnical services are required for situations that can not be anticipated either during the design or construction phases. The Department has also included design services in the proposed Agreement for any unanticipated changes in the field during construction which require redesigning and Department staff is unavailable to perform the redesign within the short time frame necessary to avoid delay charges from the Contractor.
Some of the tasks to be performed under this Agreement are bargaining unit work, while others, such as geotechnical and environmental services, require specialty skills which are not expressly identified in County classifications. The environmental support services are needed where there is a narrow window of time in which to perform the work and keep the project delivery on schedule. An example of this need would be if one of the regulatory agencies issued a new list of special status plant species that require field surveys during a specific time frame during which the plants are identifiable. In this instance, and in similar unanticipated instances, there would not be time to do a new contract.
The ongoing aggregate of work to be performed under this Agreement, coupled with the uncertainties of grant funding levels, make the addition of permanent staff unwarranted. The Agreement will cover spikes in the workload and the need may be temporary and sporadic since the majority of the work involved will need to be done during the spring and summer months.
The Department recommends the Board make findings pursuant to Article II, Section 210 b (6) of the El Dorado County Charter that there are specialty skills required for the work performed under this Agreement that are not expressly identified in County classifications, and that the ongoing aggregate of the work performed under this Agreement is not sufficient to warrant the addition of permanent staff.
The El Dorado County Employees Association, Local #1, has been informed of this proposed Agreement.
Action to be taken following Board approval:
1. The Chairman will sign the two originals of the Agreement.
2. The Board Clerk will forward one original of the fully-executed Agreement to the Department for further processing to Wood Rodgers.
Contact:
Richard W. Shepard, P.E.
Director of Transportation
Concurrences: Approved by County Counsel and Risk Management