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competitively bid in April 2016. The bid received was significantly higher than anticipated, but after substantial research the bid has been found to be responsive and responsible. Because the project was identified several years ago, and has a long history of working with the neighbors, staff has developed a funding strategy and is placing the award of the project before City Council for consideration. DISCUSSION The project was advertised for construction bid on March 26, 2016. Two mandatory pre- bid meetings were held to discuss the project and answer any questions from contractors in attendance. Through this process, eight prime contractors were identified as potential bidders on the project. However, when bids were opened on April 22 only one bidder submitted a bid by the 2:00 PM deadline. The base bid of $7,277,650.75 was received from Ghilotti Construction Company, Inc. of Santa Rosa, California. A second bidder, Tennyson Electric, arrived to bid on the project but was late for the advertised bid deadline so their bid could not be accepted. However since only one bid was received, staff called Tennyson Electric to discuss what their bid would have been. Tennyson Electric shared that their bid would have been $9,562,738, considerably higher than Ghilotti's bid. The Engineer's Estimate on the project prepared by the Engineering design consultant Kimley-Horn was $4,997,551. After the bid opening, Engineering staff requested that Kimley-Horn review their estimate. Kimley-Horn responded that their estimate was low in three areas. First, the Kimley-Horn estimate did not account for the mobilization fees (typically 10% of the construction contract value). Second, Kimley-Horn indicated that their estimate for roadway excavation and grading of$10 per cubic yard, a number based on Caltrans cost data, was very low. Because the Stanley Boulevard construction area is tight and access to private properties must be maintained, they indicated that the cost should have been closer to the $65 per cubic yard bid by Ghilotti. Finally, Kimley-Horn stated that their traffic control estimate was simply a percentage of their total cost estimate. When preparing their traffic control estimate, they assumed the street demolition and excavation could be accomplished during the school summer vacation period, and the street could be closed to through traffic for this whole period of time. Ghilotti does not believe they can accomplish all excavation and grading during the school summer break. Their traffic control bid line item is based upon providing adequate traffic control to safely maintain two-way traffic at all times during the project. With these costs added to their estimate,the Kimley-Horn estimate increases to approximately$6,200,000. Kimley-Horn also indicated that their engineer's estimate is based upon data which does not reflect the current economic climate and construction bidding environment. For these reasons Kimley-Horn believes the Ghilotti bid to be fair and reasonable. Regardless of Kimley-Horn's opinion of the bid received, Engineering staff remained concerned about only receiving one bid for the project. Trying to understand why only one bid was received, staff contacted the potential bidders that attended the mandatory pre-bid meetings (Saint Francis Electric, Tennyson Electric, Ghilotti Construction Company, O'Grady Paving, Inc., West Valley Construction, Underground Construction, Granite Construction, and Teichert Construction). Three contractors indicated that they submitted as subcontractors and were not interested in being the prime contractor for this project. Two contractors indicated that during the bidding period there were other projects also out to bid, and they decided to put their efforts into winning those project bids. In Page 4 of 9