DATE: October 7, 2025
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Professional Services Agreement with Woodard & Curran for the Preparation of a Sewer Collection System Master Plan in a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $601,872
RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council adopts a resolution (Attachment II) authorizing the City Manager to execute a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Woodard & Curran for the preparation of a Sewer Collection System Master Plan in an amount not to exceed $601,872.
SUMMARY
On April 23, 2025, the City of Hayward (City) issued a Request for Proposal (RFP), through the City’s OpenGov procurement portal, for a consultant to work collaboratively with City staff to prepare a Sewer Collection System Master Plan. The consultant is expected to provide highly skilled technical engineering services to develop a document evaluating the current and future capacity needs of the City’s sewer system and identifying short- and long-term capital improvements. Staff completed an extensive review process of all proposals submitted by the June 20, 2025, deadline, and recommends Woodard & Curran to prepare the Master Plan. Staff’s evaluation criteria included demonstrated expertise and experience in sewer collection system and master plans, team cohesion, and reasonableness of the level of labor effort and overall cost to complete the project.
BACKGROUND
The City owns and operates its own sanitary sewer collection system, which includes approximately 322 miles of gravity sewers, 4 miles of force mains, and 9 lift stations. The City’s sewer service area includes approximately 36,000 accounts, made up of residential, commercial, and industrial users. The City has an average wastewater flow of approximately 10 million gallons per day (mgd). The peak daily flow in recent years was 33.6 mgd, which was recorded during the unprecedently large storms on December 31, 2022, with hourly peak flows near 50 mgd.
The City last updated its Sewer Collection System Master Plan in 2015. Since that time, nearly all the capital improvements recommended in the 2015 Master Plan have been completed. These master plans are generally updated about every ten years to assess current system performance and identify future capital improvement needs. Additionally, as part of the City’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) application to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the City expressed its intent to update the sewer master plan during calendar year 2025.
DISCUSSION
The Sewer Collection System Master Plan will update the City’s sewer hydraulic model to include recent improvements, adjust the model based on updated flow data, and recommend short- and long-term capital improvements needed to convey current and future wastewater flows. To obtain flow data, 23 flow meters and 3 rain gauges will be installed for a minimum of two months at various locations throughout the City. The data we collect will help us update the sewer model and better understand the flow levels through the sewer system. This will help us evaluate how much wastewater flows the sewer system can handle during dry (non-rainfall) and rainy weather and identify improvements where needed.
On April 23, 2025, an RFP was advertised and issued for a Sewer Collection System Master Plan update. On June 20, 2025, the RFP submittal deadline, the City received four (4) proposals from Carollo Engineers, HydroScience Engineers, West Yost Associates, and Woodard & Curran. Based on the project tasks and evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP, Woodard & Curran’s proposal was ranked highest with an average score of 93.3 out of a total of 100 points.
While each firm is highly qualified and assembled strong teams for this project, staff recommends Woodard & Curran for demonstrating the best combination of qualifications and responsiveness to the City’s RFP Scope of Work and related criteria. Cost was not the deciding factor for staff’s recommendation; however, Woodard & Curran proposed a reasonable number of labor hours and competitive hourly rates. The firm focuses on water and wastewater related projects and has developed recent similar Sewer Master Plans for numerous cities and agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Furthermore, their team is experienced in InfoWorks ICM, which is the same software the City uses to model its sewer system. Given the scope of work, staff has negotiated with Woodard & Curran a total not-to-exceed contract amount of $601,872.
Execution of a PSA with Woodard & Curran will allow the City to proceed with the development of a Sewer Collection System Master Plan. The Master Plan is tentatively scheduled for completion in January 2027.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The Sewer Collection System Master Plan is for planning purposes only. However, the Master Plan will provide recommendations for capital improvements to the City’s sewer system, which is part of an effort to, pursuant to Council direction, modernize and upgrade existing infrastructure. A robust and reliable sewer infrastructure can help foster economic development and viability within the City.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priority 4: Invest in Infrastructure, though it is not a specific project on the Strategic Roadmap.
FISCAL IMPACT
The breakdown of the project costs is as follows:
Engineering Services (Consultant)
$601,872
Project Administration (Estimated)
$48,128
Total
$650,000
The Adopted FY26 Capital Improvement Program budget includes $650,000 in Sewer Collection System Master Plan Project No. 07819 within the Sewer Improvement Replacement Fund (Fund 612), which is an enterprise fund and is adequate to fund the project.
There is no General Fund Impact.
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
The Sewer Collection System Master Plan will evaluate the current and future capacity needs of the City’s sewer system and identify short- and long-term capital improvements. These improvements minimize the risk of sewer overflows, which can cause untreated wastewater to flow into public waterways.
PUBLIC CONTACT
The RFP was publicly posted on the City’s OpenGov procurement portal on April 23, 2025.
NEXT STEPS
If Council approves this item, staff will prepare and execute a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Woodard & Curran for preparation of a Sewer Collection System Master Plan.
Prepared by: Tay Nguyen, Senior Utilities Engineer
Zaheer Shaikh, Utilities Engineering Manager
Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Public Works
Approved by:
______________________________________________
Jayanti Addleman, Interim City Manager
https://www.hayward-ca.gov/business/doing-business-with-hayward/rfps-rfqs