ITEM TITLE:
Approval of Contract Award to Nordic Village Supply for the Lowe River Levee Certification Groin 1 Freeboard Repairs in the Amount of $56,325
SUBMITTED BY: Dean Day, Capital Facilities Director
FISCAL NOTES:
Expenditure Required: $56,325
Unencumbered Balance: $56,325 (pending)
Funding Source: 350-0750-55000.404 Lowe River Freeboard
RECOMMENDATION:
Approve contract with Nordic Village Supply for the Lowe River Levee Certification Groin 1 Freeboard Repairs in the amount of $56,325.
SUMMARY STATEMENT:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires levees to be certified to change flood plain insurance maps in the area. There are lower flood insurance rates for homes behind a certified levee. Groin 3 (furthest upstream) meets the certification requirements, but Groin 1 (middle levee connected to Groin 3) needs to be raised from 6 inches to 2 feet (depending on where it is on the levee), to achieve certifiable elevation that is 4 feet above FEMA’s “flood level”. Based on local observation, the FEMA “flood level” is low. This project is a paperwork exercise to get certification. There is still a lot of work to do at 10 mile on the levees. The levees at 10 mile should be raised higher than the FEMA certification level, but this small project gets FEMA satisfied, and we go on from there.
URS / AECOM has been working for over a year to submit the levee certification package to FEMA, and this project was the final item needed to complete the application. The application was started some time ago, and the application completion deadline was July 15. We were under a tight time line to get the construction done and submitted to FEMA, so we quickly got quotes for the work. We assumed the work would come under $40,000, so we used a request for quotes instead of our standard contract. The quotes were over $40,000, we could not award the work without advertising twice in the newspaper, and time for the current FEMA application expired.
Although the original deadline expired, a FEMA certification application will be re-submitted when the project is complete. The project was re-bid using the request for quotes we had already prepared, and advertised twice in the newspaper. The project as engineered consists of placing gravel and Type 3 rip-rap that are already stockpiled near the levee to achieve the elevations needed for certification. In the pre-bid meeting, Rick Wade asked if we could include hauling and placing 500 yards of waste rock from the 16 mile pit in the bid. The engineer agreed that the waste rock could be added as an additive alternate to the bid by addendum, but we do not have a plan drawing that shows what to do with the waste rock. Ironically, Wade’s firm, Nordic Village Supply, is the low bidder on the base bid, but the high bidder if the additional waste rock is included. Since the waste rock was Wade’s request, giving another contractor direction on how to place the waste rock is sketchy, and adding the waste rock will not increase our chances in obtaining FEMA certification.
We recommend awarding the base bid as originally designed with gravel and Type 3 rip-rap to Nordic Village Supply to get the FEMA certification process finalized. There is some waste rock previously hauled on the levee that we may be able to incorporate on lower spots and achieve Wade’s desires.