CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
10/24/2022
1 SUBJECT:
Rejection of Bids for the Pacifica Pier Handrail Repair Project & Award of Agreement with GHD, Inc. for structural inspection of Pacifica Pier
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Move to Reject the Bid for the Pacifica Pier Handrail Repair, Authorize the City Manager to Award and Execute a Master Services Agreement and Task Order No. 1 with GHD, Inc. (Attachment A) in the Amount Not to Exceed $167,252, and Allocate $217,252 in Budget for the Pier Structural Assessment from the Pier Handrail Repair Project.
STAFF CONTACT:
Ryan Marquez, P.E., Project Manager
(650) 738-3768
[email protected]
Lisa Petersen, P.E., DPW Director
(650) 738-3770
[email protected]
BACKGROUND:
On January 14, 2021, a combination of high tides and large waves damaged a forty-foot section of the Pacifica Municipal Pier’s west facing deck and concrete railing located at the end of the Pier. The City’s Public Works Engineering Division assessed the Pier damage and hired GHD, Inc. to prepare a pier handrail condition assessment report. The report stated that the section of the Pier running parallel to the shoreline, where the railing was broken from the Pier deck, would need to be fenced off and closed to public access. The report also noted that railing sections identified as severely damaged that were within the area of the pier running perpendicular to the shoreline should be repaired within a year period. A subsequent structural report on the Pier railing prepared in the summer of 2022 by GHD has pushed that date out and now recommends replacing the severe panels in the next two years (Attachment B). This is because the new structural report has shown a slower deterioration rate in the railings than anticipated in the first report that was prepared.
During design of the project, the City’s consultant for this project, GHD, Inc., believed there could be a cost and time savings to the project by replacing all the pier railings at one time because all of the railing was shown as needing replacement over a ten-year period. The other option was to replace the most severely deteriorated railings now and then returning several times over a ten-year period to replace the other railings as they reached their failing point.
Consequently, the project was designed for replacement of all of the pier railing while staff looked for grant funding.
Once funding from the California State Parks and California Coastal Conservancy was secured on April 20, 2022, Public Works released a contractor prequalification for the project. Work on piers and over open waters is specialized, and as such, staff needs to ensure the contractors Pacifica City Council 2
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receiving the work will be able to perform effectively. On May 16, 2022, three (3) contractors submitted pre-qualifications: Valentine Corporation, Dutra Corporation, and Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction, Inc. All three passed the prequalification requirements. The project was then advertised on May 18th and May 25th for prequalified bids. On June 14, 2022, the bid opening was held via Zoom by the City Clerk and one bid from Valentine came in for $3.2 million, significantly over the Engineers Estimate of approximately $800,000. On June 27, 2022, City Council moved to reject all bids and re-bid the project due to the high bid received.
Based on escalating construction bid prices during Covid around the Bay Area and limited project funding, staff and GHD worked on rescoping the project to bid out only the most severely damaged railings and clarified plans and specifications as needed to allow for the best possible bid results. The project was reopened for contractor prequalification in July 2022 and after City staff outreach, there were six additional contractors that submitted pre-qualification forms. This resulted in eight total prequalified bidders.
The project was readvertised on July 20th and July 27th for bid opening on August 16, 2022. The Project Plans and Specifications can be found in Attachment D. The bid opening was held via Zoom by the City Clerk and the results were as follows:
Company Base Bid
Power Engineering Construction Co $1,409,937.00
Disney Construction $1,513,333.00
Valentine Corporation $1,759,369.00
The Dutra Group $2,163,394.00
Abhe and Svoboda, Inc. $3,039,193.00
The engineer’s estimate was $1.2M to $1.5M. Power Engineering Construction Company was the identified low bidder at $1,409,937, however, this was above the $960,000 budget for the project. With soft costs, that include contingency, construction management and construction design support, the anticipated total project cost is $1,900,000. The project schedule projects approximately 6 months for the construction work and the pier would need to be fully closed for most or all of the work period.
DISCUSSION:
During project re-bid, a subsequent structural handrail inspection was completed in August of 2022 utilizing the data collected in 2021 as a baseline and GHD concluded that there was more time to complete the handrail repair work than initially thought because the railing deterioration rates were slower than anticipated. The report shows roughly 26% of the panels need to be replaced within two years. Furthermore, it is expected that 85% of the total panels need to be replaced within 5 years and all the panels should be replaced with 10 years (Attachment B).
Costs for total railing replacement are projected to be in the range of $3.5M to $4M, based on the August 2022 bid.
Because the new structural assessment shows slower deterioration of the railings, and because of the need to search for additional grant funding due to the high bid prices, staff has determined getting a full Pier structural assessment, that includes all structural elements of the Pier would be prudent. This would allow the City to understand the full extent of repair work needed on the Pier prior to the railings needing to be replaced and allow for the City to apply for funding for any additional structural work, should that be needed. Completing all necessary structural work at one time would also provide a cost benefit and minimize Pier closures.
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This will also prevent needing to remove any of the new handrail work due to finding other Pier component structural damage in the future. A full pier structural inspection is estimated to be $167,252 (Attachment A) and will take around 6 months, weather permitting. The inspection work may find that further in-depth inspection is needed beyond what is currently scoped. For this reason, it is recommended to allocate approximately $50k in contingency budget bringing the budget to $217,252. Furthermore, Staff would work with a contractor to determine a temporary fix to the fenced off L portion of the Pier to allow this to be opened as soon as feasible with minimal cost.
After the rebid of the pier handrail work, staff reached out to both granting agencies, State Parks and the Coastal Conservancy, to determine flexibility on use of funds and the possibility of using the funds to complete a full structural assessment of the Pier in order to capture all needed Pier structural work. During these discussions, the Coastal Conservancy agreed that a full Pier structural assessment should be completed but noted their $260k grant could not be used for this new structural assessment. They also expressed concern about doing any Pier construction work before a full Pier structural assessment was completed. State Parks provided a verbal confirmation that the City could use the $500,000 state grant towards a full Pier structural assessment, should the City choose to do this. The state parks grant must be used before 2028 and the Coastal Conservancy grant by March 2024 unless extended.
Based on the above discussion, it is staff’s recommendation to reject all bids, enter into an agreement with GHD, Inc (Attachment A) for a full structural inspection of the pier in the amount not to exceed $167,252, authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents for Attachment A, and allocate $217,252 in budget for the pier structural assessment from the pier handrail repair project.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
Authorize the City Manager to award and execute a Construction Services Agreement with Power Engineering Co. (Attachment C) in an amount not to exceed $1,409,937 and allow a 15% contingency for a total construction budget authority of $1,621,427; authorize the City Manager to award contracts for construction management services and design support for up to $278,572; and approve a budget adjustment of $1.2 million from the Disaster Accounting Fund (Fund 34) to the Pacifica Pier Handrail Project to bring the total project budget to $1.9M. As the Coastal Conservancy has expressed concerns related to completing any work without a full structural Pier assessment, the $260k grant from them is not factored in with this alternative action.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
· Stewardship of City Infrastructure: includes repairing/replacing outdated city facilities such as city hall, the libraries, fire stations, etc., improving streets, and responding to impacts of sea level rise. This action will support stewardship of one of Pacifica’s most treasured assets, the Municipal Pier.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Should council adopt the recommended action the following budget breakdown would apply and would utilize CA State Parks funding:
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Total Project Source and Use of Funds
CA State Parks $ 500,000
CA Coastal Conservancy $ 260,000
General Fund 1 $ 200,000
Total Source of Funds $960,000
Pier Structural Assessment (w/ contingency) $ 217,252
Total Use of Funds $ 217,252
Project End Balance $ 742,748
The remaining budget would be used for construction on the Pier, including completing a temporary fix to open the L section of the Pier.
ORIGINATED BY:
Engineering
ATTACHMENT LIST:
Attachment A - GHD MSA & TO 1 - Pier Structural (PDF)
Attachment B - Field Observation Summary (PDF)
Attachment C - Construction Services Agreement - Pier Handrail Repair Project (PDF) Attachment D - Plans & Specs - Pacifica Handrail Repair Project Add 2 (PDF)