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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVII (D) Discussion/ Action re: Engineering Design Services Agenda 1-19-99 "CENTER OF GOOD LIVING-PRIDE OF WEST ORANGE- T7nnvoePoPissioeua S.SCOT I'VANUIIRGRIFI Ocoee CITY OF OCOEE " O DANN1 IION'PNVE :LL 1111‘4 — 150 N. LAKESHORE DRIVE NCOI I AVDI R$ON v �YVV� Q. OMIT,FLORIDA 34761-2258 SC OI A GLASS C YPARKER ce ;` : 4 u cs (407)656-2322 Lj Q• C V MANACLE(#4,Of GOO N. kLI.IS Si IAPIRO MEMORANDUM DATE: January 13, 1999 TO: The Honorable Mayor and Board of City Commissioners FROM: James W. Shira, P.E., City Engineer/Utilities Direeto �Q f SUBJECT: Engineering Design Services �Y We currently have four engineering firms under contract for general design services. these firms are Professional Engineering Consultants, Inc., Hartman & Associates, Inc., Glace & Radcliffe, Inc., and Ivey, Harris &Walls, Inc. We arc finally seeing some light at the end of the design and FDEP permitting tunnel for many of the utility projects that are to be built with the proceeds of the 1997 utility bond issue. 'These projects include the storage tanks, pumps and transmission main piping along Clarke Road for the reclaimed water system, individual reclaimed water retrofit projects, and several water mains throughout the city. In order to expedite the design of these various projects, I am proposing that a slightly different approach than usual he used to obtain design fee quotations. Prior to entering into contracts with the above four firms, we would have been required by state law to go through the full competitive selection and negotiation process to select a design engineer for each project. This is extremely time consuming, and is the main reason we decided to enter into several continuing contracts. With four firms under contract for general civil engineering design services, we can work with any of the four to obtain design services for any particular project. All four of the firms are equally qualified to perform the design services we need, so the question that arises is"Which firm to select to design which project?" OI . We have approximately a dozen fairly large utility projects, another dozen or so smaller utility projects, all funded from utility department operating or bond funds, as well as a few general civil projects that would be funded by the general fund or stormwater utility fund for which we will need engineering design services. The utility projects range from designing reclaimed water systems in already developed neighborhoods, to water mains for improved fire protection, to designing and permitting a connection to the Orange County / Orlando Consery II line on Moore Road, in order to supply reclaimed water to the area south of SR 50. The Public Works department has a few proposed projects, and there are several small stormwater projects, all of which require design and/or permitting services. A typical approach to assigning these tasks to the various firms would be to request that each firm provide a fee quote for each job, and assign each task to the firm which submits the lowest quote. The major drawback to this approach is that we lose the efficiency of having several projects under design simultaneously. This is of particular concern to me for the reclaimed water projects. We need to get the retrofit design and construction work done as quickly as possible, so that when we are ready to send reclaimed water up and down Clarke Road,there will be receiving sites ready to accept it. To accomplish this,we need to have design work going on at several sites concurrently, not consecutively. This can best be done by dividing the projects into groups and assigning one or more project groups to each firm. The projects would be grouped together into assignments of essentially equal complexity, and each firm would be required to provide a fee quotation for their particular assignments only. The assignments would be divided equally among the four firms, so that we have all four firms working concurrently, each with a roughly equal workload, to produce our required designs. We would of course review each design fee proposal submitted, and negotiate with the firm if their proposal for a particular project seems out of line. In the unlikely event that no agreement can be reached, that particular job would be assigned to another firm. I really do not believe this will be an issue however, since all of the firms charge similar basic rates, and have an equal incentive to provide reasonable cost proposals to the city. I am requesting that the City Commission endorse this method of assigning tasks to the four engineering firms listed above, and authorize staff to begin immediately developing task groupings and issuing assignments.