3 9
8 7
City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Utilities
Meeting Date: April 22, 2024
Staff Report: 2402-2599
TITLE
Approval of Professional Services Contract No. C24190042 With BKF Engineers in a Total Not-to- Exceed Amount for $283,250 for Land Surveying Services for One Year; CEQA – Not a Project.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or their designee to execute Contract No. C24190042 (Attachment A) with BKF Engineers to provide land surveying services for a term of one year and a total not-to-exceed amount of $283,250, including $265,000 for basic services and up to $18,250 for additional services.
BACKGROUND
The Utilities Engineering Division Water, Gas, and Wastewater (WGW) perform in-house designs for all main replacement projects under the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). Since 2010, WGW Engineering has contracted with several land surveying companies to collect GPS survey information of existing above-ground features within the project areas for WGW main replacement projects. The survey information is utilized to verify and correct the existing utilities GIS base map and obtain the elevations of existing surface features and underground utilities. An updated base map enhances the accuracy of utility design drawings and reduces conflicts during the installation of new utilities.
ANALYSIS
This surveying services contract will cover approximately 36,324 linear feet of various streets throughout the City over a period of 34 weeks. Topographic survey data will be collected within the entire width of the public right-of-way and on a portion of private properties. The survey data collected under this contract will help with the design of Water, Gas, and Sewer projects, including Water Main Replacement Project 31; Gas Main Replacement Projects 26; and Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project 32.
3 9
8 7
On December 10, 2023, a request for proposals (RFP) for the Surveying Contract FY24 was posted on OpenGov through the City’s web portal. A total of 26 providers downloaded the RFP package, and the Utilities Department received responses from two consulting firms.
Utilities Engineering staff reviewed the two proposals for accuracy and completeness and rated the consultants in accordance with factors defined in Palo Alto Municipal Code Section 2.30.410.
BKF Engineers was selected as the top-ranked proposer and also submitted the lowest cost proposal. BKF is a relatively large engineering and surveying firm with adequate resources to allocate staff to perform the work under this contract and have performed satisfactorily on previous projects for the City. BKF Engineers initially proposed a cost of $298,855, but staff negotiated a reduction in the total cost to $283,250. Based on the City’s experience with BKF’s two previous surveying contracts, the negotiated price was determined to be reasonable for the work being performed.
Table 1 – Summary of Solicitation Process:
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Funding for the contract is available in the FY 2024 CIP Utility GIS Data project (WS-02014). Water, Gas, and Wastewater utilities will each be responsible for one-third of the cost.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Stakeholder engagement for this project consisted of the request for proposal and bidding process described above that was posted publicly.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Council’s approval of this term agreement for surveying services is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as defined in CEQA Guidelines, section 15378, because it has no potential for resulting in either a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect Proposal Description/Number RFP #190042
Proposed Length of Project 34 weeks
Number of Notices sent to providers via City’s
eProcurement System (OpenGov) 2,920
Number of RFP Packages Downloaded by
Consultants 26
Total Days to Respond to Proposal 37
Number of Proposals Received 2
Company Name
Bid 1: BKF Engineers
Bid 2: Bowman & Williams
Address
1730 N. First Street, Suite 600 San Jose, CA 95112
2601 41st Ave, Suite E, Soquel, CA 95073
3 9
8 7
physical change in the environment. Any future projects informed by the survey will be subject to CEQA Review at the time of approval.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A – Contract with BKF Engineers; C24190042
APPROVED BY:
Dean Batchelor, Director of Utilities
Staff: Tuan Nguyen, Principal Engineer – WGW