City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

[Music] okay good morning we'll go ahead and get started here we're going to um go through a couple of um committee meetings here this morning before we go into executive session at at 11: and our first um committee meeting this morning is public works and natural resources and that's chaired by council member Hannah Stone thank you very much president Hamill um good morning I am joined today on the public works and natural resources committees by council member Anderson and Lil Quist we have one item before us this morning this is agenda Bill 2435 it's a contract award for the Post Point resource recovery plant headworks bypass project eu1 195 this is Bid number 5 b-224 so the PO postp Point resource recovery plant headworks bypass project will Implement a temporary by bypass for the headworks facilities at the plant this temporary bypass system will allow for submerged and confined areas within the headworks to be drained cleaned and inspected the city publicly opened one bid on February 22nd 2024 boss Construction Inc is the responsible bidder who submitted the responsive bid of 1,722 77946 including any applicable sales or use tax the engineer estimate is 1,237 74470 and includes an apprenticeship hour requirement um so for this item I know we have both mics with us um Mike Olinger assistant director for Public Works operations as well as Mike Wilson um assistant Public Works director for engineering as well as our director um so I'll turn it to you to start this item

thank you council member Stone Mike Olinger Public Works I'm joined by Mike Wilson uh city engineer for for public works as well as Steve day our project engineer for plants projects um yes this project is is going to allow us to get into the headworks of the plant that has not been looked at since the plant was constructed so we're we're really excited to get this work underway and with that I'll turn it over to Steve day good morning Council Steve Day project engineer for plants um I'm going to just uh do a very brief one minute overview of what this project is um here with we' got a slide that's in your packet um this aerial view looking down at the post Point uh resource recovery facility as you can see this is generally oriented north south on the right hand side of our photo is the uh green square is where the plant influent from uh the remainder or from Bellingham comes into our plant um we're going to pump out of that manhole and the contractor will be using those shaded and hatched work areas to basically bypass the buildings in the center there the headworks 110 which is where we screen uh the influent for floatables and rags and things like that and then headworks 120 which where we settle out a bit of grit we then um distribute the uh incoming influent into the primary clarifiers while that bypass is going it's about four weeks over the summer uh we will allow our consultant team and operation and maintenance team to get into the headworks 110 and 120 buildings to

remove residual material in those inspect the concrete inspect the various uh process uh equipment that's in those buildings so um The One impact that we foree for this is that the trail that's there in the plant expansion space along the east side of the plant you can see the red bars on your screen will be closed for about six to eight weeks during the summer um the remainder of that plant expansion space will be open for uh Public Access will coordinate contractor access with uh with public use down there fairly all the work is going to be above grade large pipes 24in diameter plastic pipes and some pumps in that area uh pumps will be muffled and screened to ensure that we aren't disrupting the adjacent post Point Heron colony and I'm here to answer any questions about the project the bidding process or or what we have going on thank you very much council member list so I was kind of struck by the fact you say we haven't really had a chance to inspect this since it was built because it's been in continuous operation um this the purpose of this in part is for cleaning and for inspection what if we find something um are we expecting to find something and if we do find something might that necessitate the bypass for longer to do what's necessary to fix and if it's something major not minor what then first of all we don't anticipate any major but as you as you imply it's you don't know what you're going to find when you're digging in some some merged areas um the bypass would

would most likely be extended for a minor to moderate repair the event that something major is coming um we would have to make a decision as to whether that bypass gets extended or gets re-implemented after the design of a fix is is figured out um I will say that most of the equip the equipment that exists within these buildings is all self-isolated we can actually the mechanical equipment can be inspected and has been maintained um over the years um there's a there are some areas that are mostly channels concrete channels that we just need to get a look at and see how the if the concrete has been worn away do the influent so um most of the repairs would be fairly superficial in nature such as codings or application of grout to the concrete M Anderson thank you um similar question that uh council member list asked my second question would be I know that you noted that um there will be muffling of noise because of the Heron colony and it's I assume this is going to be happening during their nesting period do we have anybody who will be kind of keeping an eye on impacts because I imagine it's not just the pumps but there's going to be opening up concrete heavy equipment in order to be able to I mean I'm assuming those areas of work that show asphalt those areas would be opened up and so that's going to be no yeah these this all the all the work aside from the very the work right at the green square is is above grade and in fact the work that at the green square is simply

removing the manhole lid um the uh and and the the Heron Colony buffer area Cuts is we're actually just outside of it that being said we've imposed as part of the contract essentially slightly enhanced requirements for noise that that the contract has to be executed as if it were within the 650 okay boundary of that area so um but the the the square the gray areas there are really just staging areas for the contractors on grade equipment we're not anticipating a significant amount of asphalt work or really any ground disturbing work aside from the uh entry into the manhole and the rest of the work we talked about with repair is inside the buildings council member Anderson last question on this um with the bypass if we do find that we're going to have to do work or substantial work is it being um put into the level that it would be able to handle uh its job for an extended period of time as far as will it be able to I know we're doing it during lower flow period but if we had to utilize it up until fall is it going to be able to handle a heavier flow should we find that we're having to do repairs and extend yeah that would be a consideration that we would we would not want to extend this into the fall and winter the the bypass design is really designed around the lowf flow period of time um at that point we would essentially shut down the bypass or issue a if we have to issue a a change order to in increase the bypass pumping no it's not designed to operate year round for the

most part um you know I want to just stress that our headworks are currently operating correctly and this is and and there is always the option from the plants perspective to place those facilities back online at any time Council May Anderson move approval okay so we have a motion to award the contract to boss Construction Inc um I just had one followup it was addressed in the memo when I was reading the summary um statement in the in the packet I know you addressed in some detail right the fact that we only received one bid um and it was significantly over the engineers estimate by 39% I don't know if you could just speak briefly to yeah we're we're our our think and Steve and I have talked about this a little bit is that because of the complexity of this project and because of having to keep the plant operational that that's why we probably only seen one bid and we did see prices higher than what we had expected was because because of that that sort of lots of technical technical expertise is needed to do this project limited our bidding pool okay and so at this time the staff's recommendation is to move forward and to not reop that yes our recommendation is to move forward perfect so we have a motion at this time from council member Anderson to move um Award of the contract to boss construction any further discussion from the committee or the rest of council no okay seeing none all call the question all those in favor will say I I any opposed or abstentions um seeing none