Posting Language
Title
Authorize negotiation and execution of five contracts for engineering services for the CLMP375 2024 Localized Flood Analysis Rotation List with Lockwood Andrews, & Newnam, Inc.; HDR Engineering, Inc.; AECOM Technical Services, Inc.; Freese and Nichols, Inc.; and Edge Engineering, PLLC, for total contract amounts not to exceed $36,000,000. Funding is available in the Capital Budget of the Watershed Protection Department. Additional funding is being pursued through a Texas Water Development Board Flood Infrastructure Fund grant.
Body
Lead Department
Financial Services Department.
Managing Department
Watershed Protection Department.
Amount and Source of Funding
Funding is available in the Capital Budget of the Watershed Protection Department. Additional funding is being pursued through a Texas Water Development Board Flood Infrastructure Fund grant.
Purchasing Language:
The Financial Services Department issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQS) 6100 CLMP375 2024 Localized Flood Analysis Rotation List for the required engineering services. The solicitation was issued on September 9, 2024, and closed on October 9, 2024. Of the 14 responses received, the recommended firms submitted the best evaluated response. A complete solicitation package, including a log of responses received, is available for viewing on the City’s website. This information can currently be found at <https://financeonline.austintexas.gov/afo/account_services/solicitation/solicitation_details.cfm?sid=140685>.
MBE / WBE:
These contracts will be awarded in compliance with City Code Chapter 2-9A (Minority Owned and Women Owned Business Enterprise Procurement Program) by meeting the goal with 1.38% combined MBE and WBE participation.
For More Information:
Direct questions regarding this Recommendation for Council Action to the Financial Services Department - Central Procurement at: FSDCentralProcurementRCAs@austintexas.gov or 512-974-2500. Respondents to the solicitation and their Agents should direct all questions to the Authorized Contact Person identified in the solicitation.
Additional Backup Information:
As a standard business practice, the City routinely engages the services of professional engineering firms to perform analysis, design, and support services associated with construction or improvement of City capital assets. Rotation list contracting allows the City to always have a group of qualified consultants available to perform a specific type of recurring work in a timely manner to meet the project and operational needs of the City.
Prior to issuing, this solicitation was reviewed by the City’s Rotation List Advisory Committee, which is made up of staff from the Financial Services Department - Corporate Procurement, Capital Procurement, the Small and Minority Business Resource, Transportation and Public Works, and other user departments. The total authorization amount, the number of firms to be recommended for selection, and the authorization amount per firm were discussed and reviewed by the Committee. Capital Procurement expects that user departments will require these services to meet current and future localized flood risk analysis needs.
The Local Flood Modeling and Mapping Rotation List is intended to expand upon the Watershed Protection Departments library of 1D and 2D hydraulic and hydrologic models as they relate to localized flooding. It will include a City-wide modeling effort to support our department’s project prioritization process and eventually provide residents with a means to view and better understand their localized flood risk. This rotation list includes a variety of tasks associated with the analysis of localized flooding issues. As a part of the first assignment, initial pilot studies will be conducted to standardize our modeling process to ensure consistency across the city, establish procedures for high-level analysis of large portions of the City, evaluate machine learning algorithms to augment the modeling efforts, and develop information to prioritize more detailed modeling studies. Ultimately, the information developed through the modeling efforts under this rotation list will allow us to conduct our problem area and project prioritization process in a more fair and equitable manner. This project is solely intended for modeling and mapping, as well as related needs, with an estimated timeline of five years to complete the major modeling tasks.
The selected firms will be providing the City with hydraulic and hydrologic models and flood risk mapping, as well as their related technical reports, methodologies, intermediate data and files, and exhibits. This data and information will then be used to improve the department’s project prioritization and eventually allow us to display flood risk to residents using an online viewing application. The models submitted to us will then be used in the future as the base for design projects for both internal and external use. Additionally, the selected firms will also provide engineering services to the City for machine learning analysis in support of modeling, and community outreach.
While this item is not time sensitive, potential delays would impede the development of a new prioritization process, which may impact which portions of the city see drainage improvements in the near future. Community outreach will be organized as the data becomes available in the form of public meetings, conference presentations, and/or web-based educational tools.
This request allows for the development of contracts with each of the five recommended firms until financial authorization is expended. Initial project assignments will be based on the firm’s final ranking as determined during the request for qualifications evaluation (highest to lowest), the maximum cumulative contracted amount in comparison to the estimated task budget for that firm, and the firm’s qualifications and availability of expertise at time of project need. Per firm authorizations may be increased or decreased, through the life of the contract, based on the needs of a particular assignment and will follow the established rotation list policies and procedures. If the City is unsuccessful in negotiating a satisfactory agreement with a recommended firm(s), if a selected firm ceases practice during the contract period, or if the City elects to terminate its agreement with one of the selected firms, the remaining assignments will be assigned to the remaining firm(s) for the duration of the contract period.