Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Cypress Sewer Repair Design Agreement
Date: May 09, 2023
Written by: Craig Scott, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Recommendation
It is recommended the City Council adopt a resolution approving 1) a Professional Services Agreement with Brelje & Race Consulting Engineers to Design and prepare Bid Documents for Cypress Avenue Sewer Repairs, and 2) approve appropriation of funds for these efforts.
Background
The City owns and operates a sewer collection system and relies on the Santa Rosa Subregional Wastewater Treatment Plant for wastewater treatment. The costs for treating the wastewater make up nearly 80 percent of the City’s sewer enterprise fund costs and these costs are directly proportional to the amount of flow sent to the Wastewater Plant for treatment. The City can reduce its wastewater treatment costs by decreasing the amount of groundwater and rainwater entering the collection system through joints and cracks in the pipelines and manholes. To this end, the City has identified locations to repair the sewers and this proposed contract is to design and obtain a contractor to make these repairs.
Analysis/Discussion
The City completed video inspections of areas suspected of having high inflow and infiltration. As part of this inspection process, sewer defects were located and described. This information was provided to Brelje and Race Consulting Engineers to design a project to repair the defects. Sewer pipelines in both West Sierra Avenue and Cypress Avenue had a significant number of structural deficiencies and are significant because these sewers are within streets slated for paving in the near-term. Sewer repairs in West Sierra Avenue were completed in January this year, ahead of the Downtown Civic Center Connectivity and Safety Improvements Project and it is now necessary to design repairs to the Cypress Avenue sewer and have the repairs made before the paving of that street as part of the Redwood Drive/Cypress Avenue Pavement Rehabilitation Project which is scheduled for bidding in December this year.
In August 2018, Staff issued a Request for Proposals for engineering companies with sewer repair design expertise. Brelje & Race Consulting Engineers were identified as the most qualified firm and were asked to provide a proposal to design and prepare bid documents for the identified sewer repairs.
City Staff requested and Brelje & Race provided a proposal, attached to the resolution, for services to design and bid the project to replace or repair the sewer in Cypress Avenue extending from West Sierra Avenue to approximately Nelson Lane. Staff has reviewed the proposal and finds it to be fair and reasonable. Upon completion of the design and bidding, Staff will return to City Council for award of the construction contract. Bidding is expected in late summer with construction to be completed ahead of the paving project starting early in 2024.
Financial Considerations
The adopted annual City budget has no funds allocated for this project which is included in the Capital Plan for Fiscal Years 2024 ($200k for design) and 2025 ($600k for construction). This planned schedule will need to be moved up if the pipeline repairs are to be installed ahead of the Redwood Drive/Cypress Avenue street paving project – for which construction is expected to begin in early calendar year 2024. Therefore, Staff is requesting appropriation of $95,000 (includes the proposal for $88,700 plus contingency), for the current fiscal year from unappropriated sewer enterprise fund balance, and the remaining needed funds for completing the Project are accounted for in the draft FY 24 City budget.
Environmental Issues
The project is Categorically Exempt under Section 15301 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines as it consists of the repair and maintenance of an existing facility.