16 - Laserfiche WebLink

BACKGROUND The City has had an ongoing need for a firm to provide on-call geotechnical consulting and material testing services. The types of services needed may include, but are not limited to, soil analysis, pavement and sub-base recommendations, soil compaction testing, materials testing, permeability testing, construction consultations and geological hazard investigations. Previously, the City has awarded two and a half year contracts to BSK & Associates, Geotechnical Consultants, Inc., and ENGEO Incorporated for on-call geotechnical and material testing services. DISCUSSION A total of eight local geotechnical engineering consultant firms were selected from the City's consultant database and invited to submit a statement of qualifications to provide geotechnical and testing services. Five firms responded, including BSK Associates, Construction Testing Services, Kleinfelder Inc., ENGEO Incorporated, and Berlogar Geotechnical Consultants. A panel of four City staff members familiar with the needs and types of services required made up the selection committee and short-listed three consultant firms to proceed to the next step. Upon completion of the interview process and reference checks on past performances, the panel determined that BSK Associates, Construction Testing Services, and ENGEO Incorporated were deemed to be the best qualified firms to provide the required support services needed by the City. In order to avoid potential conflict of interest when firms are performing developer related work within the City, and to provide added flexibility, since geotechnical investigation is not an exact science, and for emergencies in which a firm may not be able to respond immediately due to competing emergencies or workload, staff is recommending that three firms be retained for on-call geotechnical and material testing services for fiscal year 2007-2010. For each geotechnical or material testing task needed, the selected firm(s) will be required to submit a detailed proposal, which defines the scope of work for the particular project and the fee required to complete the task. Typically, on-call service support costs ranges between $7,000 and $10,000 for each project. These are dependent on the size, types of service and complexity of the job. Approval of these contracts authorizes staff to spend up to the aggregate amount of $450,000 between the three firms over a 3-year period and most likely will encompass 40-50 separate project authorizations over the life of the contract. The proposed contracts with BSK Associates, Construction Testing Services, and ENGEO Incorporated are attached and include their corresponding Exhibit "A", Scope of Work and Exhibit "B", Fee Schedule. The combined expenditure amount Page 2 of 3