Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Three-Year Agreement with Precision Emprise, LLC, dba Precision Concrete Cutting, for Sidewalk Trip Hazard Removal in an Amount Not to Exceed $825,000. (Public Works 310)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda (City) is in need of concrete cutting services for displacements in sidewalks and curbs. The City has elected to obtain these services through a cooperative purchasing agreement, as permitted by the City’s Purchasing Policy dated July 18, 2019. Contractor bid on a Keystone Purchasing Network (KPN) nationwide trip hazard removal category (KPN Bid # KPN 201604-02). KPN is a national purchasing cooperative that reduces the cost of acquisition for educational and local government agencies. KPN awards contracts based on competitively bid purchasing contracts that meet strict bidding standards. City and Contractor desire to enter into an agreement for On-Call Shaving for Concrete Displacement, upon the terms and conditions herein.
BACKGROUND
The sidewalk system is a vital component of the city’s infrastructure and plays an essential role in city life. As conduits for pedestrian movement and access, they enhance connectivity and promote walking. As public spaces, they activate streets socially and economically. Safe, accessible, and well-maintained sidewalks are fundamental to mobility and healthy communities.
Over time concrete sidewalks have a tendency to shift and settle creating offsets between concrete panels. In addition, as trees grow and mature, site conditions can result in tree roots raising the sidewalk, curb, gutter, and pavement area. While the Alameda Municipal Code (AMC) identifies the adjacent property owner as being responsible for maintaining the sidewalk, curb, gutter, and driveway approaches, the City’s long standing practice is to repair sidewalk damaged by street trees, all other repairs are the responsibility of the property owner.
Current Sidewalk Program - The City has approximately 260 miles of sidewalk divided into five sidewalk zones, with Alameda Point (AP) being managed separately. The City contracts out the removal and replacement of sidewalk damaged by street trees while the City’s Maintenance Division performs temporary repairs, which involves the grinding down of concrete uplifts and placement of asphalt fillets. Where the damage is not caused by a City-maintained tree, the responsibility for the repair falls on the adjacent property owner. In these instances, the City sends a notice to the property owner informing them of their responsibility to make the repair. After years of deferred maintenance, the City has a backlog of roughly $14 million in repairs, assuming removal and replacement based on 2019 construction costs.
Concrete Cutting - The City’s Fiscal Year 2019-21 capital budget includes the integration of concrete cutting, a technology where vertical offset sidewalks are cut, when possible, in place of removal and replacement. Precision Concrete Cutting (PCC) is a firm specializing in sidewalk condition assessment and trip hazard removal. PCC uses a proprietary and patented cutting technology to repair concrete off-sets. PCC’s saw cutting of vertically offset sidewalks is a superior method for removing trip hazards as compared to grinding and fillets. Concrete cutting leaves a cleaner repair, has a reliable standard of quality and can be more accurately sloped to meet Americans with Disability Act (ADA) standards. Grinding can have a wide variance in quality of performance, leaves a less aesthetic repair and is less precise for meeting slope requirements. Concrete saw cutting instead of removal and replacement, when possible, can address more tripping hazards with limited resources. Although the cause of the uplift-differential settlement or tree roots-is not addressed with this methodology, it removes the tripping hazard and extends the time before the remove and replace work must be done.
In the summer of 2017, Public Works conducted a pilot with PCC to evaluate their data collection methods and quality of trip hazard removal. The pilot project involved the repair of lifted sidewalks ¼” and greater, the mapping and documentation of all locations repaired, the identification of sidewalk areas requiring complete replacement, and whether the needed repair is caused by a street tree. The pilot yielded positive results with 203 tripping hazards removed and a comprehensive condition assessment of the project area for approximately $15,000, or on average less than $75 per trip hazard. The estimated savings as compared to traditional removal and replacement to address the same tripping hazards is $75,275 or an 85% savings.
To identify locations eligible for concrete cutting and those requiring removal and replacement, Public Works entered into contract with PCC on June 15, 2017, to conduct a comprehensive condition assessment of the City’s sidewalk infrastructure. To date, PCC has completed surveying in three out of five sidewalk zones (which does not include AP). Within the surveyed area, there are 16,017 tripping hazards that are caused by street trees or are adjacent to City owned parcel that can be saw cut to remove the hazard. Another 2,519 locations, totaling 298,300 square feet, require removal and replacement of the existing concrete. Within the surveyed area, there are 19,557 tripping hazards that are property owner responsibility that can be saw cut and 3,178 locations, totaling 291,760 square feet that require the removal and replacement of existing concrete. It should be noted that a property owner may be a utility, such as Pacific Gas & Electric, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Alameda Municipal Power, and others, that have a utility box located in the sidewalk that is the cause of the tripping hazard.
Program Optimization - Although the comprehensive survey is not yet complete, it is clear that more proactive management of the City’s sidewalk system is needed. As the 2017 pilot demonstrated, saw cutting is an extremely cost effective way to remove trip hazards. City staff proposes to use 50% of available sidewalk capital improvement funds to saw cut trip hazards focused in Zone 4, Grand Street to Broadway, and the remaining 50% of funds on removal and replacement work within the same zone. Subsequent fiscal years will focus available resources in a different sidewalk zone, such that going forward each zone is visited once every five years.
DISCUSSION
PCC Contracting - In 2016, PCC bid on a KPN nationwide trip hazard removal category (KPN Bid # KPN 201604-02). KPN is a national purchasing cooperative that reduces the cost of acquisition for educational and local government agencies. KPN awards contracts based on competitively bid purchasing contracts that meet strict bidding standards. PCC has satisfactorily performed this service for over 30 years for Bay Area cities, including Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, San Ramon and many others.
Staff recommends awarding a contract to PCC for a total amount of $275,000 per year, for up to three years. PCC pays not less than the prevailing rate of per diem wages as determined by the Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations. The contract is attached as Exhibit 1.
PCC will finish condition assessment in sidewalk Zones 1 and 2 for an estimated cost of $21,800. The remaining $228,200 funds will be for saw cutting tripping hazards in Zone 4. To prioritize the use of funds, trip hazards with the largest uplift will be cut first. Based on contract pricing, it is estimated that 1,706 trip hazards, ¾” and greater, will be saw cut within Zone 4.
Alameda Point - Under this proposed contract, PCC will condition assess AP and saw cut trip hazards as they go, with a not to exceed amount of $25,000 for this fiscal year. Staff estimates this will address 250 trip hazards. The condition assessment data will be used to plan subsequent year’s saw cut and remove and replace work
ALTERNATIVES
• Award the contract as recommended.
• The City Council may opt to not award this contract and give direction to staff to continue the sidewalk program, as is.
• The City Council may opt to reduce or increase the scope and budget of the proposed contract.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Budget for this project is included in the Public Works Department Capital Improvement Program (Project Nos. 91601 and 96001) funded with monies from General Fund and in Base Reuse Fund Facility Maintenance (818003) program operating budget. This will be a flat rate of $275,000 per year with no increase to the contract. Allocation is as follows:
Appropriations Allocation |
FY 2019-21 Amount |
Capital Projects Fund, 91601 Sidewalks (2017-19 Capital) |
$147,000 |
Capital Projects Fund, 96001 Sidewalks (2019-21 Capital) |
$103,000 |
Base Reuse Fund, Facility Maintenance (818003) Program |
$25,000 |
Total |
$275,000 |
Any contract amount beyond FY 2020-21 will be subject to future available appropriations approved by the City Council.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action does not affect the Alameda Municipal Code.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), this project is Categorically Exempt pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301(c), Existing Facilities.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
Safe, walkable sidewalks are essential to meeting the vehicle miles traveled reduction goals in the City’s Climate Action and Resiliency. This optimized sidewalk repair program will remove more trip hazards and therefore facilitate safe walking, which is a healthy and clean form of transportation.
In addition, there are environmental benefits to be realized from concrete cutting versus full sidewalk replacement. Concrete saw cutting minimizes material waste. One hundred panels of concrete that are removed and replaced result in approximately 56 tons of concrete being removed (average panel weight of 1,120 pounds). Saw cutting 100 off-sets results in only 0.3 tons of concrete waste, which saves approximately 141 gallons of gasoline to transport the concrete waste, or a reduction of 1.3 metric tons of Co2. Further, concrete cutting necessitates production of far less cement and lowers total water usage and fuel costs compared with full sidewalk replacement.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to execute a three-year agreement with Precision Emprise, LLC dba Precision Concrete Cutting for sidewalk trip hazard removal in an amount not to exceed $825,000.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager recommends approval of the contract with Precision Emprise LLC. I additionally recommend folding Alameda Point into the program in the future.
Respectfully submitted,
Liam Garland, Public Works Director
By,
Erin Smith, Deputy Public Works Director
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director
Exhibit:
1. Contract
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager