BACKGROUND:
Pavement Management Programs are a widely implemented asset management tool to improve the maintenance and rehabilitation of local streets for cities in California and throughout the United States. Utilizing many years of academic research and studies, pavement management programs analyze pavement life cycles and existing pavement conditions to optimize and more systematically determine timing, priorities, and cost- effective pavement rehabilitation strategies.
The City’s roadway network is comprised of 155 miles of roads, singularly the City’s largest and most valuable physical asset. Increasing labor and materials costs and limited pavement maintenance budgets make the strategies used on investing these limited resources to manage, maintain, and preserve this asset more effectively critically important.
Currently the City utilizes an inventory of street segments and pavement conditions developed by Engineering Staff 10 years ago to assist in the identification and implementation of the City’s annual street resurfacing and maintenance program.
Development of a Pavement Management Program will improve the process of planning the maintenance and repair of Cathedral City roadway network in a more systematic manner, maximizing pavement life cycle and optimizing the expenditure of the annual road maintenance budget. More specifically, the Pavement Management Program will:
•Provide an inventory and objectively document existing pavement conditions. •Provide a data driven analysis tool utilizing budget information and pavement conditions to develop alternative maintenance and rehabilitation strategies to improve the selection of annual projects.
•Calculate the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) for the entire street network to better inform decision-makers and more accurately quantify funding impacts of delaying maintenance and rehabilitation work.
•Provide annual recommendations regarding how funds should be allocated and the impacts of annual investment levels on the overall condition of the road network.
•Provide recommendations to better inform decision-makers on the most cost- effective use of available funding.
City Engineering Staff are proposing the information cited above will be utilized to assist in developing a comprehensive 5-year pavement maintenance and rehabilitation strategy for implementation and ultimately for City Council to review and approval as part of the development of the biennial projection for the five-year Capital Improvement Project (CIP) plan.
DISCUSSION
A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued on September 23, 2022, requiring consultant qualifications, including but not limited to, a minimum or 5 years’ experience in developing, implementing, and performing road maintenance updates utilizing enterprise pavement management software common to the industry such as StreetSaver or equivalent.
The selected consultant will be required to perform the following services:
•Conduct pavement distress surveys.
•Audit existing pavement inventory for accuracy and consistency. •Establish pavement maintenance strategy criteria for evaluation and programming purposes.
•Analyze and determine annual investment level impacts to overall pavement network condition and maintenance backlogs.
•Prepare programming and funding recommendations based upon various budget scenarios.
On October 13, 2022, the City received six (6) proposals in response to the RFP. The proposals were evaluated following the guidelines established in the RFP. Proposals were received from the following companies:
Infrastructure Management Services, LP (IMS) Tempe, AZ
NCE Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. Fountain Valley, CA Harris and Associates, Inc. Concord, CA
Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) Ventura, CA
Bucknam Infrastructure Group, Inc. Oceanside, CA
HR Green Inc. Palm Desert, CA
The Evaluation Committee was composed of Cathedral City Staff (Director of Engineering/Public Works, City Engineer and Assistant Engineer) and Michael Kashiwagi as contract staff having prepared the RFP.
The qualifications of all firms substantiated significant experience, but there was a consensus that, based upon the experience and qualifications, NCE Inc. is best suited for the development of the City’s Pavement Management Program.
NCE will provide the City with an updated inventory of the City’s current pavement network, recommendations for future road maintenance and rehabilitation strategies, and a five-year work plan based on funding availability and asphalt treatment scenarios.
NCE will also provide 40 hours of technical support and software training on the StreetSaver software program for Staff, as well as a presentation to the City Council when completed. It is anticipated that the overall timeline to complete the Pavement Management Program will be seven months.
City Engineering Staff is requesting City Council approve a Professional Services Agreement with NCE, Inc., to prepare and develop a Cathedral City Pavement Management Program, in a not-to-exceed amount of $76,143.00; and authorize the City Manager to execute all required contract documents.
FISCAL IMPACT
The Professional Services Agreement with NCE, Inc. for the Pavement Management Program will be funded from the Engineering Departments available FY2022/23 Professional and Technical Services account # 100-100-150-156-8600-8601.