HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-25-19 City Commission Packet Materials - C4. Notice of Award for the 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project
Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Kellen Gamradt, Engineer II
Shawn Kohtz, City Engineer
SUBJECT: 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project - Notice of Award
MEETING DATE: March 25, 2019
AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Consent
RECOMMENDATION: Find apparent low bid submitted by Johnston Excavating, Inc. non-responsible and authorize the City Manager to sign the Notice of Award and final contract
documents, once received, to Omdahl Excavation, Inc. for the total base bid plus additive
alternate 1 in the amount of $794,427.00.
BACKGROUND: Attached is a copy of the Notice of Award for the above referenced project. The project generally includes: reconstruction of North Tracy Avenue from Villard Street to Peach Street, replacement of existing water mains, valves, fittings and appurtenances, sewer
mains and manholes, and storm drainage pipe, inlets and manholes. The contract is to be
completed within 100 days of the issuance of the notice to proceed.
Bids for the above-referenced project were opened on March 5, 2019 with six (6) bids being
submitted. The apparent low bid was submitted by Johnston Excavating, Inc. in the amount of $739,010.50. The next lowest bid was submitted by Omdahl Excavation, Inc. in the amount of
$753,797.00. Staff is recommending that the low bid submitted by Johnston Excavating, Inc. be
rejected and the award made to Omdahl Excavation, Inc. Johnston Excavating was determined
to be a non-responsible bidder by City staff based on previous work on public and private
projects within the City. Staff believes awarding the contract to Johnston Excavating is not in the best interest of the City.
The attached award recommendation memo from City Engineering Staff contains detailed
information that was the basis for this decision. Omdahl Excavation has a long history of
completing municipal utility and road projects for the City and is well qualified to complete the work. The final contract documents will be available online and retained in the City Clerk’s office upon final execution.
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UNRESOLVED ISSUES: None
ALTERNATIVES: Disapprove
FISCAL EFFECTS: This project will be paid for with the following funding allocation: Street Reconstruction Fund $194,344.50 S.I.D. #750 $194,344.50 Water Fund $200,758.00 Waste Water Fund $204,980.00
Attachments: Notice of Award, Award Recommendation Memo, Bid Tabulation
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NOTICE OF AWARD
Dated: __________________
TO: Omdahl Excavation & Utilities, Inc.
ADDRESS: 659 Morning Mist Road, Manhattan, MT 59741
PROJECT: 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project
CONTRACT FOR: 2019 NORTH TRACY AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
You are notified that your Bid opened on March 5, 2019, for the above Contract has been considered. You are the
apparent Successful Bidder and have been awarded a Contract for the: 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction
Project. The Contract Price of your Contract is: Seven Hundred Ninety Four Thousand Four Hundred
Twenty Seven Dollars & 00/100 ($794,427.00).
Four (4) copies of each of the proposed Contract Documents (except Drawings) accompany this Notice of Award. Two
(2) sets of the Drawings will be delivered separately or otherwise made available to you immediately.
You must comply with the following conditions precedent within fifteen (15) days of the date you receive this Notice of
Award:
1. You must deliver to the OWNER Four (4) fully executed counterparts of the Agreement including all the
Contract Documents and Drawings.
2. You must deliver with the executed Agreement the Contract Security (Bonds) as specified in the Instruction to
Bidders (Article 20), and the General Conditions (paragraph 5.01).
3. List other conditions precedent:
You must deliver with the executed Agreement the Certificates of Insurance as specified in the General
Conditions (Article 5) and Supplementary Conditions (paragraphs SC-5.04 and SC-5.06).
Failure to comply with these conditions within the time specified will entitle OWNER to consider your Bid abandoned, to
annul this Notice of Award, and to declare your Bid Security forfeited.
Within ten (10) days after you comply with these conditions, OWNER will return to you two fully signed counterpart of
the Agreement with the Contract Documents attached.
CITY OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA ATTEST:
BY: __________________________________ BY: ____________________________
(CITY MANAGER) (CITY CLERK)
DATE: _______________________________
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REPORT TO: Tim Cooper, Assistant City Attorney
FROM: Kellen Gamradt, Engineer II Shawn Kohtz, City Engineer SUBJECT: 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project Contract Award Recommendation DATE: March 7, 2019
Enclosed are the official bid tabulations for the above referenced project. There were six (6)
bidders in total. Two (2) of the bids were below the Engineer’s Estimate and four (4) were
above. See below for a summary of the bids.
Bidder / Engineer's Estimate Total Base Bid
Johnston Excavating, Inc $739,010.50
Omdahl Excavation, Inc $753,797.00
Engineer's Estimate $825,000.00
Western Municipal Construction $869,107.25
First Mark Construction $912,250.00
Knife River $934,038.00
COP Construction $949,932.00
The apparent low bidder for the project is Johnston Excavating, Inc. based out of Bozeman, MT. In order
to determine the lowest responsive and responsible bid that is in the best interest of the City, we
examined the apparent low bid as well as the qualifications and work history of the bidder to complete
the work. Following our review, it is our opinion that Johnston Excavating is a non-responsible bidder as
defined by the bidding requirements, to perform the work.
Johnston Excavating has completed numerous utility projects in the Bozeman area. Most recently, in
2016, Johnston Excavation completed the NAIC Sewer Main Extension Project for Montana State
University. I spoke with the project engineer and a representative from Montana State University about
Johnston’s performance on the project. During construction, Johnston Excavating was responsible for
spilling several hundred gallons of diesel fuel on the MSU campus. Johnston also had trouble getting
their sewer pipe to pass testing requirements. Overall, it was apparent that Johnston Excavating’s work
was unsatisfactory on the project. On May 2, 2017, Johnston Excavating filed a claim against the City
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for hitting a City water service and subsequently, a City sewer service they claimed were incorrectly
marked and not at the appropriate depths. This claim was turned over to the City’s liability insurer,
MMIA, for investigation. The results of this investigation showed the following:
“Johnston was obligated under MCA 69-4-505 (4) to excavate in a careful and prudent manner
and be responsible for any damage or injury resulting from the excavator’s negligence. It can be
argued Johnston’s negligence in assuming the water service line was at a certain depth and
failing to use careful and prudent measures, such as hand digging, were the primary cause of
damage to the water service line. The private sewer service line breached by Johnston during
repair of the water service line was not a “locatable underground facility” as defined in MCA 69-
4-501 (6).” The claim resulted in no payment to Johnston Excavating. In addition, Johnston owed the City an outstanding charge of $1,529.13 from September 12, 2016 that was not paid until May 16, 2018 when our City Water/Sewer Superintendent became involved. Currently, Johnston Excavation owes the City $78.46 from July 19, 2016 for a water main shutdown also associated with this project. The City of Great Falls was also contacted to discuss Johnston’s work performance. Great Falls had deemed Johnston Excavating a non-responsible bidder in 2017 for a water main renovations project. The following is an excerpt from the City of Great Falls Commission Memorandum recommending Johnston Excavating not be awarded the contract: “City Staff conducted an extensive background check on Johnston Excavating’s recent projects. City of Conrad where Johnston Excavating did a water main replacement project in 2014-2015. We contacted both the Public Works Director for Conrad and the KLJ Engineering (design engineer for the project) requesting references for the work performed. The public works director was not satisfied with the entire project, including the lack of professionalism of the Contractor, the quality of their equipment, and the quality of work that was performed. The project was complete in 2015 yet the paper work has not been closed out and the project has ended in litigation. The City of Conrad will not do work with Johnston Excavating for any future projects, and does not recommend them. The City did not receive a response to the inquiry from the design engineer.” The most recent project Johnston Excavating completed for the City was the 2012 Water Main Renovations. During the course of construction, the City received several complaints from property owners about Johnston Excavating’s performance. A copy of these complaints are included as an attachment to this memo and include: allegations of damage to private property, unresponsiveness to concerns and requests from property owners, unsafe management of the jobsite, unqualified workers on the jobsite, unprofessional management of the project, and an unwillingness to work with inspectors, engineer’s and the general public. Johnston Excavating also failed to adhere to the contract requirements for change orders and adjustments in price.
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Under Award of Contract in the Instructions to Bidders (Article 19 of the Montana Public Works Standard Specifications) procedures for the evaluation of bids and the award of contract are explained: 19.1 OWNER reserves the right to reject any and all Bids, including without limitation, nonconforming, non responsive, unbalanced or conditional Bids. OWNER further reserves the right to reject the Bid of any Bidder whom it finds, after reasonable inquiry and evaluation, to be non-responsible. OWNER also reserves the right to waive all informalities not involving price, time or changes in the Work and to negotiate contract terms with the Successful Bidder. OWNER reserves the right to reject the Bid of any Bidder if OWNER believes it would not be in the best interest of the Project to make an award to that Bidder whether because Bid is not
responsive or the Bidder is unqualified or doubtful financial ability or fails to meet any other
pertinent standard or criteria established by the OWNER. We recommend that the City reject Johnston Excavating, Inc.’s bid for the 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project based on the bidder being non-responsible as defined by the bidding requirements, to complete the work. We have reviewed the second lowest bid from Omdahl Excavation and Utilities, Inc. and have found no bid altering errors or discrepancies in their bid and feel they are well qualified to complete the work. Omdahl Excavation has completed numerous projects for the City including the 2018 Local Street Reconstruction Project and the 2017 Local Street Reconstruction Project. We recommend that the City award the contract for the 2019 North Tracy Avenue Reconstruction Project to Omdahl Excavation and Utilities, Inc. in the amount of $794,427.00 which includes: $753,797.00 for the base bid and $40,630.00 for additive alternate #1.
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