Broken Arrow City Council
Meeting of: 05-05-2020
Title:
title
Consideration, discussion, and possible approval of design and bidding considerations regarding the Hillside Drive Retaining Wall Replacement Project (ST2034)
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Background:
In late fall 2019, the Wallace Engineering performed a re-design and prepared subsequent construction plans for the replacement of the Hillside Drive Retaining Wall system. On December 11 and December 18, the City advertised the retaining wall for bids. The bid documents restricted the perspective bidders to potential contractors who were on the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) pre-qualification list. On January 3, 2020, the City opened bid on the project. Ultimately, only two bids were received and opened with both bids coming in significantly over the City's construction budget. The apparent low bidder for the base bid alone was $1,990,000.00 which is $490,000.00 over the City's project budget of $1,500,000.00.
On February 4, 2020, the governing body rejected all bids, but not before the Council approved for Engineering and Construction staff to contact bidders in order to evaluate bids and determined areas of critical concern that impacted the proposed cost. Staff discovered several relevant points of information during the discussions with the design engineer and the two bidders. These points are as follows:
1) All concurred that a similar type wall to existing conditions, MSE wall, constructed with a properly sized drainage field and media placed behind the wall which also accounted for the existing geotechnical conditions would be an adequate and economical solution to the existing problem.
2) The limited right-of-way along with the height and backslope of proposed excavation factored heavily into bid prices. Bidders were concerned with the safety of their workers being placed between the excavation and the proposed formed wall. Added slope protection was included in the bid prices which increased the...
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