- Number 22nd, 2018, Public Utilities Board.
The first item on the agenda is the consent agenda.
So does any board members wish to pull an item
on the consent?
Nope, okay.
Do we have a motion to approve items A through D
on the consent agenda?
- So moved.
- Second.
- All in favor?
- Aye. - Aye.
- Opposed?
Motion carries.
Items for individual consideration.
The first item is consider the approval
of the board minutes from October 8th of 2018.
Were there any changes or corrections
that need to be made?
Okay, having none, then we'll approve them as presented.
Receive nominations and elect a secretary
for the Public Utilities Board.
Do we have any nominations?
- I'd like to nominate Charlie.
- Okay.
Is there something formally we have to do?
Is one nomination good?
Do you accept that nomination?
Okay.
Okay, all in favor of Charlie being the secretary?
Say aye.
- Aye. - Aye.
- Opposed?
Congratulations, Charlie.
Item number three, consider recommending the adoption
of an ordinance for the City of Denton
and to execute an agreement with Hewitt-Sillers, Incorpor
ated.
- Good evening, everyone.
I'm Chad Allen, Deputy City Engineer,
and I have this presentation
about the McKinney Street widening final design contract.
It does involve utility funds,
so we're spending water and wastewater funds
to build some of the improvements
that are associated with this project.
Otherwise, it's a large roadway project.
I'm asking you to consider recommending adoption
of the ordinance to allow us to execute the agreement
for the engineering-related professional services
to widen McKinney Street,
and the contract would be with Hewitt-Sollers, Inc.
in the amount of $1,731,200.
So this map shows the extents of the project.
On the west end, it starts at Woodrow,
and on the east end, it goes all the way to Grissom Road.
We've performed 30% design already
of this entire length of the project,
but the final design part of the project
focuses in on this red portion
from Loop 288 east to Grissom Road.
So the scope of the project includes widening McKinney
from two lanes to four lane divided roadway
and installing turn lanes and sidewalks.
We're gonna adjust utilities along the corridor,
and we're also gonna build a 20-inch water transmission
main
from Loop 288 to Mayhill Road.
We're gonna build drainage improvements
throughout the corridor,
and right now we have about $18.3 million in the budget.
We don't expect that that's gonna be enough
to allow us to complete the entire project,
so we plan to bid the project with alternates
and just build as far as we can,
starting at the loop going east.
So here's a little bit of history about the project.
In June of 2016, Textot and the City of Denton
agreed to turn the roadway over from Textot
to the City of Denton.
So the City of Denton now owns the roadway,
and we maintain it.
And then in January of last year,
we entered into an advanced funding agreement with Textot,
and they gave us $18.3 million to widen the road.
We originally intended to use a design-build process
to design and construct McKinney Street.
As part of that process,
we hired an engineering firm to be our representative,
and so far they've created 30% construction plans.
Also, next, if we continue down the design-build pathway,
they would issue an RFQ and then an RFP
to help us bring on a design builder.
And then after that, the design builder
would finish the construction documents
and build the project sort of simultaneously.
Last year, we brought on Hugh at Zollers
as part of an RFQ,
and we chose them to be our engineering representative.
And as of today,
they've created the 30% construction plans.
So right now, we can move forward
with the design-build process,
or we could have Hugh at Zollers just perform final design,
which is our typical process,
and then build the project
with our standard solicitation process.
Rather than go through the RFQ and RFP process right now,
which would take until May of next year,
we would prefer just to get Hugh at Zollers
under a final design contract
so that we could start construction next May
instead of just finishing the RFP process by next May.
So that's what we're asking to do.
We're proposing to cancel
the remainder of the Hugh at Zollers contract,
and then enter into a new contract for final design.
We would select Hugh at Zollers
for the final design project using RFQ 6590,
and that is an RFQ that happened last March
that allowed us to have now a pre-qualified list
of engineering firms that we can choose from quickly
to design our projects.
Hugh at Zollers is one of those qualified firms
for roadway design.
So here's a little bit of information about the contracts.
The original contract amount is $1,358,300.
So far, Hugh at Zollers has earned $754,300,
and so remaining in that contract is $584,000.
So far, they've developed a 30% construction plans.
They've done a lot of special services
that are required to finally design the project,
to build the project.
They've done geotech and environmental
and utility coordination
and subsurface utility engineering,
and then they also develop final plans
for the construction phase sidewalk
that was built from Loop 288
to Ryan High School recently, successfully.
The new contract would be for final design services.
So we would cancel the original contract.
That $584,000 would not be spent,
and then we would enter into a new contract
for final design services
in the amount of $1,731,200.
So that would be an additional $1.1 million
on top of the $584 remaining in the original contract.
If we do this, the final design scope
includes all of these things
that are required to finish the plans,
topographic surveying, easement preparation,
environmental, public involvement activities,
the roadway design, 1.8 miles of roadway design,
drainage, water, wastewater, as-built surveying,
and then some construction services.
So here's a comparison of the schedule,
and this is one of the reasons,
this is the reason we really wanna do this.
We wanna start construction in May
instead of just finishing up an RFP process in May.
So the original design build schedule,
we were supposed to have 30% plans in September of 2018.
We have those.
Then we would go through sort of a lengthy RFQ
and RFP process that would end next May.
Then our design builder would come on board,
and they would start to do final design
and sort of construct it simultaneously
after they could finish a couple design packages.
What we wanna do now is that we have the 30% design.
We wanna bid and award a utility package
to start construction in May.
We can do that if we bring Huwitz-Aullers on
with his final design contract.
We can be under construction in May,
and it's really important that we do that
because we have stakeholders like NECS, NECCOG, and TxDOT
that really want us to start spending money
on the construction project.
Then we wanna bid and award a paving and drainage package
in November of 2019, and again,
basically complete the job in the same amount of time
that we'd get under construction sooner in May,
and that's what our partners want us to do.
So we recommend adoption of the ordinance
and execution of this agreement for final design
of the McKinney Street widening project
with Huwitz-Aullers Inc.
And the not to exceed amount of $1,731,200.
And I'll be happy to try to answer
any questions you might have.
- You mentioned that the funding amount
would most likely not finish the project.
Can you make any estimations about how far
the 18 million might take us?
- So this is Grissom.
So we're thinking we can get down,
I'm not sure what this street is called, I'm sorry.
We think we can get here or here with the roadway project.
Right now we estimate that the red segment here
is gonna cost about $24 million.
We currently have about 16 to 18 left in the account,
plus we have some utility funds
in the amount of three or $4 million.
So we don't think we can build the entire project
to Grissom, but we can get close.
But again, we're gonna bid it all the way to Grissom
and design it all the way to Grissom
and have alternates in the contract.
Hopefully we can get some good processing
and we can build the entire project
or we could get some additional funding.
- When you mentioned the estimate
of wherever that street was,
was that with everything, with drainage and sidewalks
and everything to that point?
- Yes, that's everything.
- Okay, okay.
- Was this gonna be the first road design
build project that you were doing?
- It was going to be.
- Okay, all right.
That answers.
- Okay.
- It's going, okay.
- Okay.
- To finish the project, is that an additional 20 million?
- So are you talking about this part of the project?
- I guess we're talking about the little red line
you've got there.
- Okay, yes, the eastern end of the project,
our current estimate is for $24 million.
- Total?
- Yes.
- And this part is 18 million, is that right?
- That's how much money TechStalk gave us.
TechStalk gave us $18.3 million.
- So it'd be a six million or so shortfall.
- We have some utility funds too,
so it's about a three or $4 million shortfall
we have right now.
- Where's that gonna come from?
- We, if we don't get additional funding,
we're gonna build the project with alternates
and we're just gonna build a shorter length.
We're gonna build as far as we can,
starting at loop 288 and going east.
- Okay.
- So we would set up the bid
so that we go to certain roadways
and we have segments that we can add on
if we can afford it.
And the contractor will provide numbers
to allow us to add on to the bid.
We'll bid it with alternates.
We're doing it right now with our Hickory Creek West Road,
Hickory Creek Road West project.
- So what is the outlook for funding
for the western section?
- I guess that could be part of a future bond program.
- So no near term?
- I think it would be funds from a future bond program
where we do have 30% design for that right now.
So that's really good information.
It's definitely not wasted information.
We'll have that available if funds do come available
and we can finish the design of the project.
- So is this contract gonna finish design on that section
or just-- - No, it is not.
- Just at east?
- Yes, sir.
- So is there different ownership or jurisdiction of the
road
from east to west of loop 288?
- No, there is not.
We own the entire road.
We maintain the entire road starting in Elm
and going all the way out to the eastern city limits.
Techstop turned that over to us.
Unfortunately, they only gave us 18 million instead of 40
or a larger amount.
They basically gave us,
they worked on the design of this project for years
and they just gave us what was left out of their project
account when they turned over the road to us.
It wasn't based on any estimate of,
hey, this is the amount of money
you need to build the project.
- And so we chose to do the eastern component
that wasn't a stipulation of the money or anything.
- No, it was not.
We chose to focus on that eastern end.
- Okay, great.
- But we'll also work with our,
we have a consultant, his name is John Polster with ITS
and they work very closely with city staff
and the council of governments along with county
and Techstop.
So while Chad does mention that there is a shortfall,
we work pretty closely with them
and if we can try to identify those funds,
he's a good advocate to help us.
- I just hate to have to go back out there two years later
or whatever and cause disruption again.
- I think the other thing too,
Chad, can you go back to that,
the slide that showed the timeline for just a few moments
with that change and again, cut me if I'm wrong,
part of that is trying to go to construction a lot sooner
to stretch those dollars.
- It is.
- So the quicker we can get a contractor on underbid,
the further those dollars go just based on our,
based on the history we're having here
and here in Denton around the region
when it comes to construction.
So it may just, even just a few months helps quite a bit.
- So when Techstop turns a road over to us,
don't they usually either upgrade it
or give you an equivalent of what it would be to upgrade it
or not depending?
- So usually when we take back a road,
yes, we coordinate with Techstop
and they'll go in and reconstruct the road
up to our standards or some standards
that we agree with them about
and then after they rebuild the road,
we agree to take it over
because we don't want to immediately
have to start maintaining that roadway.
We don't have the money to do that
so that's usually what happens, yes.
In this case, it did not happen.
They gave us that money so that we could widen it
and reconstruct it.
It just doesn't cover the entire limits
of the length of the project.
- All right.
All right, any other questions?
- Forgive the newbie.
Can you just define design build?
- So design build is a process that allows,
what usually happens is the city will get an engineer
to create the 30% plan
so we have a preliminary set of plans
and we give it out, we solicit our design build teams
and usually it's a contractor who's teamed up
with an engineer and others
and they give you a guaranteed maximum price
based on the 30% plan
so you pick the design build team
because they give you a guaranteed maximum price
and then they guarantee to finish the design
and build it for that amount.
There's some unknowns when you do that.
You don't have final design yet
but the teams are trying to maybe use some innovation
to get it done so that they can make a profit
and after they give you your guaranteed maximum price
so they would finish the design
and they also are able to issue construction packages
in piecemeal so they can do a grading package
and then a utility package and then a paving package
so they can theoretically start construction sooner.
We're gonna have our designer, Hugh Zollers,
if you approve this contract,
we're gonna sort of do it like that.
They're gonna issue the utility package first
and we're gonna go start building it
and then they're gonna issue the paving drainage package
next and we're gonna go start building it
so it's sort of a pseudo design build process.
- I just wasn't sure what the hyphen meant
whether it was first design, then build,
design combo. - It's simultaneous, yeah.
- Design build combo, okay.
- Exactly. - All right, thank you.
- Happens at the same time.
- Any other questions?
- Just one remaining, any right of way issues?
- Yes, so we're gonna--
(laughing)
- Good one, Charlie.
(laughing)
- We're gonna build a project within the existing right of
way
throughout the corridor except at the intersections.
At the intersections, we need turn lanes
so we anticipate having to widen the road
at most of the major intersections
and get right of way in those areas.
We're gonna have Hewitt's hollers get that right of way
and perform those right of way services
so that we don't overwhelm our staff
and so that we can get it done more quickly.
- And that's included in the cost?
- Right, so-- - Or in addition to?
- It's gonna be in addition to.
- Any estimate?
- We don't have that contract yet.
- Now any more questions?
- I have one, just kind of a comment.
So as the project moves forward
and the funds start to diminish even further,
I would encourage whoever is sitting down at the table
to decide where we spend money
to evaluate the pedestrian traffic in the area.
We have lots of kids going from Luke 288,
well, in the neighborhoods off there off Luke 288,
walking to Ryan High
and I don't believe they have a sidewalk to walk on.
So I would hate to see us widen the road
and create more capability for automobile traffic
and not accommodate those that are having to walk
along the roadway.
- So focusing on that pedestrian access
and getting that sidewalk built
has been such a great focus of city council
over the last year and we did construct that sidewalk
on the north side of McKinney Street.
- So there's a sidewalk there?
- Yes, sir.
Using funds from this project.
So we call it the construction phase sidewalk.
We pushed it as far away as we could from the right of way
so that we can get the children
out of the way of the construction area.
We obtained easements throughout there.
And yes, we have a sidewalk that goes from Luke 288
to Ryan High School and farther east.
We had a big ribbon cutting out there with the mayor.
It was beautiful.
- Oh, great.
Well, congratulations.
- But it is temporary.
- It is temporary, it's concrete, but it is temporary.
- Sure, sure.
I mean, everything's temporary, right?
(laughing)
- We're gonna take it out when we build the roadway project
and install a sidewalk that follows the road.
Right now, it follows the existing ground,
push back far away from the right of way
to keep the students safe.
- But we came up with a solution to help the pedestrians.
- Absolutely, it was so important.
- Great.
Awesome.
- Just one more question.
(laughing)
I'm sorry.
Do you know about when the construction will take place
in front of Ryan High School?
I mean, is there any way it can be scheduled
so that maybe it's like during the summer
when the kids are--
- So sure, they would try to phase a sidewalk,
definitely around the activities of the school.
We would work with the contractor to do that.
That's a little bit down the road,
but that's absolutely a focus we would have
when we started construction.
- Okay, good.
All right.
So do we have a motion?
- I recommend approval.
- Second.
- All in favor?
- Aye. - Aye.
- Opposed?
- Thank you.
- All right, ACM update.
- Well, to make sure we keep on time.
- Three minutes.
- Madam Chair and members of the board,
not much to report.
There is, if you'll look in your new business matrix,
we did add the item in regards to the assessment
of the Denton Energy Center,
and we'll be providing,
staff will be providing an informal staff report
as an ACM update in December,
and we'll make sure that staff is here
to answer any questions that any members of the board
may have.
So outside of that, I've got nothing else to report.
- And I appreciate getting the staff report
on the sewage release.
Thank you for that.
Let's see, concluding items.
Are there any items that a board member
would like added to a future agenda?
- I do have something that,
it's just kind of an idea I have,
and maybe I have some shortcomings,
and so I have a hard time keeping track of it.
So we have all these capital improvement projects,
and we have bond projects,
and some of them have been going on since 2012
or something like that, maybe not quite that long.
And some of them are solid waste,
and some of them are electric,
and some of them are wastewater,
and some of them are water,
and some of them are drainage.
And I just wonder if maybe quarterly,
we could get some kind of update
of the progress of those.
I know we covered it in the budget process,
but there's already so much else going on
in the budget process.
It would just be nice.
It seems like at one point in time,
like the first year that I was here,
we looked at the--
- We looked at the--
- Kind of like a construction to date or something.
- Yeah, and we had,
there was this cool timeline that showed
when the project started,
and when it was funded,
and the phase it was going through.
We don't have to have a visual,
but if we could just have some kind of narrative
that would say, you know, this is this project,
and it started in 2012,
and it got funded with this much money,
and it's this far complete,
and we're gonna have to come back for more money,
or we have enough money to complete it.
And I mean, I know that sounds like, I don't know.
Are y'all already keeping track of that stuff already?
And no, I know you guys are, but other--
- We're back to it again.
We've got it.
- I mean, I think Phil Gavin, when he was here,
wanted something like that too.
And I'm like, now that's years ago, obviously, but yeah.
- And then did we just recently start looking at drainage,
or have we always looked at drainage?
'Cause I don't remember, I mean, I remember--
- I think drainage was always a part
of another department. - Coming up.
- Right, is that correct?
We've always done drainage,
but I think it was cobbled in with another--
- Well, the budget was-- - Part of waste water.
- Combined with-- - Part of waste water.
- Part of the waste water fund, and so--
- So we can certainly-- - I just have,
I don't remember the last drainage project we looked at.
I know that it was, well, I do remember it,
but it's been a long time ago.
So I just, could just get some kind of update.
- Sure, we'd like to. - Glad to.
- Okay.
- Thanks. - You bet.
- You're welcome.
- Any other items?
- I move we adjourn.
(laughing)
- Do we have a second?
All in favor, aye.
- Aye.