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PUBLIC WORKS / TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION - Executive Director Jim Simon and Deputy Director Jessica Riske-Gomez
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Requested Action(s)
recommendation
a) Request to adopt a finding that competitive bidding for the work described in Contract Change Order No. 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 47, 51, 56 through 79 for the Bus Maintenance and Administrative Facility Rehabilitation Project would be unavailing and impractical and would not produce any public advantage
b) Request authorization for Public Works Director to issue change orders Contract Change Order No. 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 47, 51, 56 through 79 in the amount of $250,243.53
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Financial Impact:
$3 million in total transit funding set aside for this project in a combination of State and Federal grant awards.
Background Information:
Since 2020, $3 million has been set aside for this project. The Board awarded the contract for the Bus Maintenance and Administrative Facility Rehabilitation Project to McCuen Construction Inc. of Loomis, CA as the lowest responsive bidder in the amount of $2,000,000.00 on March 28, 2023 (Miscellaneous Agreement #2023-40). At that time, the Director of Public Works was authorized $200,000 in signature authority for the issuance of Change Orders to the contract, pursuant to Public Contract Code 20137.
The additional contingencies budget was anticipated due to unknown building and site conditions at the facility and the lack of available as-built drawings. As-builts are used during the construction phase to continually track how the land and building is changing as work progresses during original construction. Dedicated as-built surveys make as-built drawings much easier to construct in the end, because of the greater level of detail recorded from every stage of the project. There were no existing records to support the rehabilitation project. Without a full history of project condition changes prior to County acquisition, managers were unable to identify what has been built and had to invest in learning about existing conditions as the project moved forward creating a robust list of change orders to compensate for unknown site conditions.
Deputy Director Riske-Gomez presented an update at the August 15, 2023, meeting regarding the current change order overruns and projections that the project would not exceed the budget total. On January 23, 2024, Change Orders No. 1 through No. 55 were approved at the meeting of the Tehama County Board of Supervisors.
The project funding has a budget for contingencies (including Change Orders) totaling $1,000,000.00 of state and federal grants. The contingency budget is supported with transit State of Good Repair (SGR) and Local Transportation Fund (LTF) dollars. The following change orders have been developed while coordinating with Caltrans to ensure they are presented to the Board in a complete and correct manner. Since the project was awarded, change orders Order No. 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 47, 51, 56 through 79 have been determined to be necessary by the Director of Public Works.
Changes in the work of this scale would ordinarily require competitive bidding. However, under Graydon v. Pasadena Redevelopment Agency (1980) 104 Cal.App.3d 631, competitive bidding is not required where such bidding would be unavailing and impractical and would not produce any public advantage. For the following reasons, competitive bidding for the extra work in this case would not produce any public advantage, and it is in the County’s and public’s best interest to negotiate change orders with the existing contractor on the project rather than competitively bid these project changes: (1) McCuen Construction Inc. of Loomis was already mobilized and on site performing base project construction functions and it is more costly to approve plans and specifications, advertise and solicit bids for the changes to the work being performed by McCuen Construction Inc. In addition, McCuen Construction Inc. already had knowledge and experience with site conditions on the project, such as the construction of the abutment fill, which have contributed to the need for the change order; (2) The delay associated with advertising and bidding for completion of project changes would have resulted in suspension of the project and consequent cost to the County and inconvenience for the public; and (3) Competitive bidding requires award to the lowest responsible bidder. This could result in multiple contractors working on the same project at the same time which would cause conflicts and difficulty in apportioning responsibility for contract issues, such as liability, completion dates and performance.
The total of Change Orders No. Order No. 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 47, 51, 56 through 79 is $250,243.53 .