2018-05-01 Growth Committee Agenda Packet - Open SessionCity of Saint John
Growth Committee - Open Session
AGENDA
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
11:00 am
8th Floor Boardroom, City Hall
1. Call to Order
Pages
1.1 Approval of Minutes - April 3, 2018 1 - 2
1.2 Progress on Population Growth 3-21
1.3 Development Practices
1.3.1 Infrastructure Approvals Process 22-44
1.3.2 Capital Program - Design, Tendering and Construction Management 45-77
1 Poeta Sy:1
City of Saint John
Growth Committee Meeting
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Growth Committee Closed Session
1. Call to Order
Si vous avez besoin des services en fran�ais pour une r6union de Conseil communal, veuillez
contacter le bureau du greffier communal au 658-2862.
Each of the following items, either in whole or in part, is able to be discussed in private pursuant
to the provisions of subsection 10.(2)(4) of the Municipalities Act and Council / Committee will
make a decision(s) in that respect in Open Session:
11:00 a.m., 8th Floor Boardroom, City Hall
1.1 Approval of Minutes 68(1)
1.2 Financial Matter 68(1)(c)
1.3 Financial Matter 68(1)(c)
K
Growth Committee Meeting
Open Session
April 3, 2018
MINUTES- OPEN SESSION GROWTH COMMITTEE MEETING
APRIL 3, 2018 AT 12:30 P.M.
8T" FLOOR BOARDROOM, CITY HALL
Present: Mayor D. Darling
Deputy Mayor S. McAlary
Councillor G. Lowe
Councillor J. MacKenzie
Councillor B. Armstrong
Councillor R. Strowbridge
Also
Present: City Manager J. Trail
Commissioner Growth and Community Development J. Hamilton
Deputy Commissioner Growth and Community Development P. Ouellette
Deputy Commissioner Building and Inspection Services A. Poffenroth
Director Real Estate Services S. Carson
Population Growth Manager D. Dobbelsteyn
Planner J. Cyr
CI Coordinator N. Moar
Administrative Officer R. Evans
1. Meeting Called To Order
Mayor Darling called the Growth Committee open session meeting to order.
1.1 Approval of Minutes
1.1.1 Minutes of March 15, 2018
Moved by Deputy Mayor McAlary, seconded by Councillor Lowe:
RESOLVED that the minutes of March 15, 2018 be approved.
MOTION CARRIED.
Francis Power, Chair Develop SJ, Christine Comeau, Operations Coordinator Develop SJ, Leslie
Magee, John Logan, and Peter Allaby, Develop SJ Board Members entered the meeting.
1.2 Develop SJ Presentation
Francis Power and Steve Carson reviewed the submitted presentation highlighting the
following:
- First 90 days milestones
- Strategic Model
- Customer -Centric
- Entrepreneurial Leadership
- Business Portfolio
Growth Committee Meeting
Open Session
April 3, 2018
- Rapid Lab
Corporate Goals
Moved by Deputy Mayor McAlary, seconded by Councillor Lowe:
RESOLVED that the presentation from Develop SJ be received for information.
MOTION CARRIED.
Jeff Trail, Steve Carson, Francis Power, Christine Comeau, Leslie Magee, John Logan, and Peter
Allaby withdrew from the meeting.
1.3 Smart Cities Challenge Milestone Update
N. Moar presented the Smart Cities Milestone update referring to the submitted report.
Moved by Councillor MacKenzie, seconded by Councillor Lowe:
RESOLVED that the Smart Cities Challenge Milestone Update be received for information.
MOTION CARRIED.
Adjournment
Moved by Councillor Armstrong, seconded by Councillor Lowe:
RESOLVED that the open session meeting of the Growth Committee be adjourned.
MOTION CARRIED.
The open session meeting of the Growth Committee held on April 3, 2018 was adjourned at
1:25 p.m.
Recording Secretary
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A
GROWTH COMMITTEE REPORT
Report Date April 23, 2018
Meeting Date May 01, 2018
His Worship Mayor Don Darling and Members of the Growth Committee
SUBJECT: Capital Programs — Design/Tendering/Construction Management
OPEN OR CLOSED SESSION
This matter is to be discussed in open session of the Growth Committee.
AUTHORIZATION
Primary Author
Commissioners
City Manager
Brian Keenan
Brent McGovern/
Michael Hugenholtz
Jeff Trail
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that this report be received and filed.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to provide the Growth Committee with an overview
of the functions of the City's Municipal Engineering group and of the
Design/Tendering/Construction processes utilized to complete projects under
the approved Capital Programs.
PREVIOUS RESOLUTION
N/A
STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
This report aligns with Council's priority for Valued Service Delivery, specifically
as it relates to investing in sustainable City services and municipal infrastructure.
REPORT
INTRODUCTION
The City's Municipal Engineering team is responsible to Saint John Water and
Transportation and Environment Services for providing professional engineering
and technical staff resources for engineering support, design and construction
management for projects under the Capital Programs for the improvement of
!1'7
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municipal infrastructure and to ensure the integrity of the systems through
implementation of sound engineering standards.
The infrastructure categories under Saint John Water include Sanitary and Water
and under Transportation & Environment include Storm & Transportation.
Sound engineering design and construction management is essential to protect
the environment, provide safe clean drinking water and to provide an efficient
transportation network by constructing infrastructure that is built properly using
sound engineering standards.
The Professional Engineering team consists of an Engineering Manager, 4
Professional Municipal Engineers and Technologist support staff. Each
Professional Engineer manages 8 design/tender/construction projects annually
on average.
The team meets bi-weekly to review progress on project design/ tendering and
construction with a goal to discuss and remove any barriers to progress and to
discuss project specifics to ensure consistency in decision-making.
In addition to design / tendering / construction management, the following
additional functions are completed by the Municipal Engineering team:
— Asset Management
— Investigate problems within the City's water, sanitary, storm and
transportation systems and develop solutions
— Prepare cost estimates for projects
— Capital Program Planning / Budget Analysis / Reporting
— Respond to requests from citizens
— Organize and attend Public Information Sessions
— Coordination with Provincial / Federal Governments on various initiatives
including funding programs
— Updating the General Specifications
— Preparation of Request for Proposals for engineering services including
evaluation of proposals
— Project Management with Consultants
— Program scheduling utilizing Microsoft Project
— Preparation of Council Reports
— Coordination and direction to support staff for field survey work,
preparation of record drawings and updating the GIS Systems for asset
management
CAPITAL PROGRAMS — DESIGN
Common Council has approved the 2018 Water and Sewerage Utility Fund
Capital Program consisting of 21 projects totaling $6,499,000 and the 2018
General Fund (Storm and Transportation) Capital Program consisting of 11
projects totaling $6,570,000. Annual Capital Program planning is an ongoing
process that starts with condition assessment of assets. The primary condition
-3 -
assessment mechanism for the sewerage systems is the CCTV Video Inspection
Program and for the transportation systems is the Micropaver/PCI Program.
Based on the condition assessments, projects are prioritized and the Utility Fund
and General Fund recommended projects are coordinated to ensure they are
completed efficiently.
After Capital Program approval, the following stages (including a timeline based
on a typical project of $500,000 budget) are necessary to move the projects
through to construction:
Design Engagement/Request for
Proposal (RFP)
6 weeks
Site Survey
2 weeks
Project Design Period
10 weeks
Project Approvals (minimum)
2 weeks
Tendering and Award
6 weeks
Construction Period
10 weeks
Reinstatement
2 weeks
Total
38 weeks or 9.5 months
The Project Approvals can be more complex depending on the nature of the
project and at minimum would be 2 weeks. For complex projects requiring a
Certificate of Approval to Construct or an Environmental Impact Assessment or a
Wetland or Water Course Alteration Permit can add several months to the
approval period. These types of approvals from the Province usually require
sealed final engineering drawings so the Project Approvals process would start
following the Project Design Period. Property acquisition may also be required in
order for the project to proceed and that process would normally start following
the Project Design Period (as the limits of property acquisition need to be
defined accurately) and the duration of the Property Acquisition is largely
dependent on the co-operation of the current property owner and can take
months and sometimes years to acquire property.
The 2018 Capital Programs were approved by Council on October 2, 2017.
Allowing the month of October to prepare a Capital Program Implementation
Plan including drafting of RFP's for design services and to obtain budget
numbers, etc., (to allow expenditures to start) would put the above typical
project tender advertisement at early April and construction completion at mid-
August 2018 providing there are no interruptions to the time line.
Certain municipalities (Fredericton) rely entirely on external consultants for
design while Saint John has in the past and as is planned for 2018 rely on a
combination of external consultants and internal staff to complete the design
packages. Of the 32 approved 2018 projects, the Municipal Engineering team will
be designing 23 of the projects and will rely on external consultants for 9
projects.
Fredericton has a similar size Capital Program (approximately $13 Million) to that
of Saint John and chooses to utilize external consultants for the majority of the
project designs. Their design procurement process allows for Fredericton to
engage consultants without any competitive process and therefore consultant
engagement can be accomplished quickly. Conversely, the Saint John
procurement process for external design services can take 6 to 7 weeks from
start of RFP process to Council approval and signing of Agreement. The
Fredericton model also allows for the various project designs to be completed
concurrently as each project can have a separate consultant design team.
Consultants are paid on an hourly basis with funds drawn from a project design
pool of funding so Fredericton staff do not need to wait for individual Capital
Project approvals to start design work. The Fredericton model would come at a
higher external cost as the $13 Million program would ultimately require
external Engineering Services at approximately 20% of the overall Capital
Program envelope which equates to $2.6 Million in engineering fees.
In contrast, Saint John plans to design and tender $5.3 Million worth of projects
utilizing internal design staff while utilizing primarily external staff for inspection.
The amount not being paid out to external consultants by completing the design
work and overall project management internally amounts to approximately
$800,000 ($5.3 Million x 15%). The cost of 4 staff engineers and 4 technologists
which make up the design area of Municipal Engineering including wages and
benefits amounts to approximately $750,000. The advantage to utilizing internal
staff for design work is that the staff are also available to complete other work
tasks as were detailed in the Introduction section of this report. Saint John has
engaged external consultants for the remainder of the $7.7 Million of Capital
Program projects, plus inspection services for the internal design projects at an
engineering fee of approximately $1.8 Million. The typical charge out rate for
external engineering consultant staff is approximately 2.5 times the City's
internal rate (wages + benefits) which is standard for private sector companies in
order to cover overhead costs and profit. There is a significant financial
advantage to completing as much design work internally as possible but with
only 4 Internal Design Teams, not all project designs can be completed
concurrently. For the 2018 internal design projects, it is estimated that each
team would require approximately 26 weeks of design time.
!E:3
-5 -
This means that tendering of projects for 2018 will need to continue into April
and May. This has some advantages as the startup dates for construction can be
staggered to avoid too much concentrated construction on City streets at one
time, therefore reducing traffic issues. Other municipalities like Fredericton that
rely totally on external consultants for design would still require a significant
complement of internal staff to engage and carry out administrative work with
the external consultants. Staff are of the opinion that utilizing internal staff for a
portion of the design work is more economical overall. Staff have not noted any
significant cost increases in tendered amounts by extending the tendering into
April/May. The tendered amounts for 2017 projects were evaluated against the
Engineers' Estimate and the percentage (tendered amount _ Engineers'
Estimate) remained fairly consistent into April/May/June and are comparable to
earlier in the season at around 90%. In summary, staff are of the opinion that the
Saint John model of utilizing a combination of internal staff and external
consultants for design work is more cost effective overall than utilizing external
consultants exclusively.
CAPITAL PROGRAM -TENDERING
Each year the City advertises tenders for a number of projects under the Capital
Program. In 2017 the Municipal Engineering group advertised 18 tenders with
two of the 2017 projects being held up from tendering due to property
acquisition and one project tender delayed due to an EIA process (see table
below). Under the 2018 Capital Program there are 13 projects to be advertised
for tender as shown in the following table.
!Loll
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2017 Project Tenders Held Up (due to environmental approvals and/or property acquisition)
Design By
Project
Budget
Date for
Tender
Comment
Website Ad
Closing Date
City
Morna Hgts/Greenwood
$3,000,000
Apr 10
May 1
Tender
WWTF's
advertised.
Complex EIA was
required
CBCL
MRG Forcemain X -Y
$850,000
May 8
May 29
Dates tentative
due to ongoing
property
acquisition
City
Hanover Street Storm
$400,000
May 8
May 29
Dates tentative
due to ongoing
property
acquisition
2018 Projects Tendered
City
Leinster Street
$630,000
Mar 6
Mar 27
Project awarded
Reconstruction
City
Asphalt
$6,000,000
Mar 13
Apr 3
Project awarded
Resurfacing/Curbs &
Sidewalk
City
Sandy Point Road Storm
$115,000
Mar 20
Apr 10
Project awarded
Sewer
City
Visart Street
$620,000
Mar 27
Apr 17
Project awarded
Reconstruction
CBCL
Musquash Pumping
$2,550,000
Apr 3
May 1
Tender advertised
Station — Electrical
Substation
CBCL
Westgate Park Storm
$700,000
Apr 24
May 14
Tender advertised
Sewer
City
Glen Road —Water,
$450,000
Apr 24
May 15
Tender advertised
Sanitary
City
Rockland Road
$1,010,000
May 1
May 22
Tender advertised
Reconstruction
2018S
pecialty Projects —Tender Schedule
City
Sewer Lining — Currie
$505,000
Apr 24
May 15
Work at each
Ave/Jack's Field/Mill
location to be of
St/Paddock St
short duration (2-
3 Days)
City
Watermain Cleaning &
$1,360,000
May 15
June 5
Work to be
Lining Phase 15
carried out at
various locations
with work at each
site to be of short
duration (2-3
Days)
Dillon
Ocean Drive Pump Station
$265,000
May 29
Jun 19
Generator will
Generator
need to be
ordered. Good
opportunity for
off street fall work
TBD
Carpenter Place WWPS—
$400,000
Jul 17
Aug 7
Pumps will need
Pumps
to be ordered.
Good opportunity
for late fall work
inside facility
City
Crack Sealing
$100,000
Jul 17
Aug 7
Best results when
cracks sealed in
the fall
6119]
Staff focused on tendering the larger scope 2018 projects first which included
Leinster Street, Asphalt Resurfacing, Visart Street and Musquash Pumping
Station - Electrical Substation. Three more projects which involve traditional
excavation - Westgate Park, Glen Road and Rockland Road - are proposed to be
advertised for tender in April with the tenders closing in May. These are the last
three 2018 tenders that utilize the services of the traditional excavation
contractors and given recent tender pricing, staff is confident that the City will
continue to receive competitive tender pricing on these three remaining
traditional excavation contracts when they close.
There are also five specialty type projects (with only the Watermain Cleaning &
Lining project requiring some minor excavation) that will be tendered over the
next few months and they include Watermain Cleaning & Lining, Sewer Lining,
Ocean Drive PS Generator, Carpenter Place WWPS Pumps and Crack Sealing. The
specialty projects have tender dates towards the end of the schedule as work at
each of the sites will be of short duration.
With the early October approval of the 2018 Capital Programs it has allowed for
an earlier tender release when compared to previous years. For example, in
2017, 60% of the tenders were advertised and closed by the end of June while
for 2018, 85% of the tenders will have been closed.
In order to further improve the tendering time line in the future the City of Saint
John should continue to utilize the direct engagement procedure for external
engineering consultants for specific projects and to approve a separate
Engineering Investigation & Design line item in future Capital Programs that
would allow design expenditures to occur year round. Staff will include this in
the draft capital budget for 2019 for Council's consideration.
CAPITAL PROGRAMS -CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
The Engineer having placed their engineering seal on the design drawings has a
personal professional obligation to ensure not only that the design meets the
standards but also that the final constructed systems will function as the design
intended. This is why it is critically important that the Engineer have full
authority related to the project design and construction to ensure the final
project functions as the design intended and to ensure the safety of the public.
An important aspect of a project is the Construction Management and Inspection
(CMI) component. CMI plays a critical role in delivering quality construction
projects. The project inspector assigned to the site and reporting to the Engineer
must be diligent in ensuring that the project is constructed in accordance with
the approved plans and specifications. The City of Saint John has adopted a
document entitled Construction Inspection Guidelines to provide guidance to
inspectors working on projects for the City of Saint John. In addition to this
document, the inspector must familiarize themselves with the City of Saint John
51
MI
General Specifications, applicable bylaws and regulations, permits and the
drawings and specifications for the project. The inspector must ensure that the
approved drawings, specifications, permits, etc., are adhered to by the
contractor. It is important that the inspector keep good notes and records in the
form of daily reports. The City will for certain projects be utilizing external
consultant inspectors.
The engineering design drawings are prepared under the direction of the
Engineer who is responsible for reviewing, approving and placing their personal
professional engineering seal on the engineering drawings prior to tendering.
The Engineer has a Professional obligation for the standard of the design and to
ensure quality construction work.
The General Specifications defines the Engineer as follows:
"ENGINEER" includes the Chief City Engineer, or any Engineer who is employed
by the City and has been designated by the Chief City Engineer to act on
his behalf, or a Consultant which has been retained in writing by the Chief
City Engineer or the Engineer acting on behalf of the Chief City Engineer.
Each contract will have a designated City Engineer as identified in Division 1 of
the contract. Ultimately, the responsibility of the City Engineer is to ensure that
the construction work is completed to a high standard, meeting all the
requirements of the contract. The Engineer is to be fair to the contractor in their
decisions but ultimately is responsible to the City and the taxpayers/ratepayers
to ensure quality work. The authority of the Engineer is defined in the General
Specifications as follows:
The Engineer has full authority to define the meanings of the Drawings
and other Contract Documents. The Engineer, either personally or
through the Engineer's Representative, shall be the sole judge of the
workmanship and materials in respect of both quality and quantity and
has full powers to examine, inspect and approve or reject materials,
methods of procedure and workmanship provided or used in the
execution of the Contract and to determine whether or not materials
and workmanship are of the character required by the intent and
meaning of the Drawings and other Contract Documents.
The Contractor must promptly and efficiently comply with all orders,
directions and instructions given at any time by the Engineer with
respect to the work. If the Contractor disagrees with any order,
direction or instruction given at any time by the Engineer, he shall
perform the Work as instructed and shall serve notice in accordance
with the Disputes -Arbitration section of the General Specifications.
The Contractor shall also, where he intends to submit a claim for
61►
-9 -
additional time or money arising out of the construction of the work,
give written notice of his intention to claim.
The Engineer shall, upon receipt of a Notice of Claim, render a decision
in writing to the contractor. Should the contractor be dissatisfied with
the Engineer's decision, he can request that the dispute be referred to
a Board of Arbitration.
The duties of the Engineer's Representative (Inspector) are defined in
the General Specifications as: To watch over and supervise the work
and also to supervise the testing and examination of all materials to be
used, or workmanship employed, in connection with the work. The
Engineer's Representative does not have any authority to relieve the
Contractor of any of the Contractor's duties or obligations under the
Contract, to order any work involving delay or extra cost to the City or
to make variations in the work.
Failure of the Engineer's Representative to disapprove any work or
materials shall not prevent the Engineer from disapproving such work
or materials.
The Engineer has the authority to order variations or changes to the
form, quality or quantity of the work. The Engineer shall determine
whether all such work shall be valued using the Schedule of Quantities
and Unit Prices (tendered unit prices).
Monthly measurements of the work being carried out under the
Contract shall be made jointly by the Engineer's Representative and
the Contractor's Representative at the end of each calendar month. At
the end of each month, the contractor shall submit to the engineer,
for verification of the measurement, a fully itemized statement
showing the estimated value of the work executed up to the end of
the month.
The City of Saint John has tendered over 500 contracts in the last 25 years and
staff can only recall one contract where the amount of payment respecting
contractor claims was in dispute that was subject to an Arbitration process. In
this particular Arbitration, the Board ruled much closer to the Engineer's decision
than the amounts claimed by the contractor. There have also been three
contract matters referred to litigation over disputes in quality of work over the
last 25 years.
So in summary, it is very rare that the Engineer and contractor would require an
Arbitration Board (or any third party for that matter) to settle a dispute
regarding claims for extra work or contract quantities.
6V
-10 -
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION —SPECIFICATIONS
The City of Saint John relies on the following engineering standards to ensure the
long-term integrity of the City's water, sanitary, storm and transportation
systems:
• City of Saint John General Specifications (Approved & Adopted by
Common Council)
• City of Saint John Storm Drainage Design Criteria Manual (Approved &
Adopted by Common Council)
• Atlantic Canada Guidelines for the Supply, Treatment, Storage,
Distribution, and Operation of Drinking Water Supply Systems
• Atlantic Canada Wastewater Guidelines Manual
• Canada -wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater
Effluent endorsed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the
Environment (CCMA)
• Transportation Association of Canada Geometric Design for Canadian
Roads
• National Building Code of Canada
• Canadian Electrical Code
The General Specifications have been approved & adopted by Council and are in
place to protect the public's interest. The General Specifications are the primary
design and construction document that is utilized by the Engineers and
contractors.
The General Specifications are a user friendly document that includes the
technical standards as well as the work flow processes to be followed under the
terms of the contract between the City and the contractor.
The City of Saint John General Specifications exist to provide the contractors with
requirements for bidding and/or working on City of Saint John construction
projects. The General Specifications are to be used in conjunction with individual
contract specifications and recognized authorities governing the safe practices
for municipal engineering.
Each year the General Specifications are revised and updated based on
comments/suggestions from all stakeholders including City staff Engineers, City
Operations staff, contractors, developers, engineering consultants and other City
departments. Stakeholders are encouraged (by letter posted on City's website
with the General Specifications — see attached) to submit comments/suggestions
to a designated staff Engineer to assist in enhancing the current General
Specifications. The comments/suggestions are reviewed and the ideas
considered for future revisions to the General Specifications document.
6'i!
-11 -
Once the annual draft General Specifications revisions are completed, they are
sent out to the Saint John Construction Association (SJCA) office to be distributed
to and reviewed by SJCA contractors. A reasonable amount of time is provided
for the SJCA review and the contractors are invited to an annual meeting at 175
Rothesay Avenue to discuss any comments they may have on the proposed
revisions and an opportunity is also provided to discuss any "construction
administrative" matters that the construction contractors may wish to raise.
Over the past 12 years, participation at the annual meeting has been good with
attendees from NRB Construction Company Ltd., Classic Construction Ltd.,
Galbraith Construction Ltd., Fairville Construction Ltd., Terraex Inc. and Gulf
Operators Ltd. The dialogue has been good and the outcome very successful. Of
the major Saint John area contractors notably not choosing to attend and
participate is Debly Enterprises Ltd. Some examples of comments/suggestions
from the contractors that have been adopted into the General Specifications are
as follows:
• Utilize a standard City form for extra work claims
• Establish pre -construction meetings, followed by weekly or bi-weekly site
meetings
• Staggered tender closings, Tuesday and Wednesday when multiple
tenders are closing in a given week
• Adopt adjustable style manhole covers in General Specifications
• Adjust typical sanitary manhole standard drawing in General
Specifications to show benching at 2/3 height of pipe diameter
• Adjust allowable markup on extra work from 10% to 15% to adequately
cover overhead costs and to align with industry standard
• Revise standard tender form so that HST is added at the end of tender
form as opposed to including the HST in each individual unit price
• Allow the contractor to be responsible for Quality Control testing of the
concrete and soils
• Implement mandatory New Brunswick Construction Safety Association
certification for safety programs of all bidding contractors
• Introduce a liquid asphalt price adjustment clause for changes in index
greater than 10% and then later adjusted the clause to 5%
• Include list of manhole raising requirements with asphalt resurfacing
project specifications
• Request Saint John Police to monitor vehicle speed through construction
sites
• Include the Construction Association in the circulation of draft proposed
General Specification revisions for review and comment prior to adoption
as final
6191
-12 -
The next cycle of proposed General Specification revisions are going to be
released in the coming weeks to the SJCA for review and comment to be
followed by a request for the contractors to attend the City's annual General
Specifications meeting. A forecast of the upcoming tender advertisements will
be provided at the meeting.
CONSTRUCTION RISK
The City of Saint John primarily utilizes unit price tenders for municipal projects.
This method is less risky for the contractor as if the quantity of work fluctuates,
the contractor is paid for the actual measured quantity of units at the tendered
unit price. There is a process under the General Specifications for managing
changes to the work for unforeseen or extra work not covered by unit prices
which is another mechanism to reduce risk to a contractor involving unforeseen
work. An example of unforeseen work that is becoming more common is when a
contractor encounters soil contaminated by hydrocarbons during the course of
excavation. The contractor has been and will continue to be compensated for
proper treatment of the soil by specialty environmental contractors. Another
example of a mechanism to reduce risk for contractors that was adopted several
years ago, involves the liquid asphalt component of the asphalt mix. It was
recognized a few years back that the price for liquid asphalt was fluctuating
significantly month to month so a Specification Clause was adopted where
payment for the liquid asphalt component would be adjusted to the cost of the
product at the time the asphalt was mixed and placed. This is a two-way
mechanism so if the liquid asphalt price goes down the City saves money on the
tendered price but if the liquid asphalt price goes up the contractor is
compensated accordingly. The City also reduces risk to contractors by obtaining
environmental approvals in advance and including the conditions/construction
requirements with the contract tender documents.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Municipal Engineering staff currently have to wait until specific projects are
approved in a Capital Program before making expenditures for external design
services.
In order to further advance the cycle to earlier release of tenders the City of
Saint John should establish a separate Engineering Investigations & Design line
item in future Capital Programs in an amount sufficient to allow design work to
proceed earlier and continue year round as required.
67�
-13 -
SERVICE AND FINANCIAL OUTCOMES
The City's Municipal Engineering team is a group of highly professional dedicated
individuals who are working diligently in a cost effective manner in the best
interest of the City, taxpayers and ratepayers. Much of the work they do involves
renewal of existing infrastructure to support Council's priorities. They also
support other important priorities such as asset management which is critical to
the long-term financial stability of the City.
A review of the 2017 tendered projects shows the pricing on average coming in
at approximately 90% of the Engineer's estimate and the trend is continuing for
2018 tendered projects.
INPUT FROM OTHER SERVICE AREAS AND STAKEHOLDERS
This report has been reviewed with the City's Finance and Administration
Division.
ATTACHMENTS
General Specifications — Stakeholders Letter
61FA
To All Stakeholders:
July 17, 2017
This letter is to inform all stakeholders (users) of the City of Saint John General
Specifications that the 2017 revisions were approved as of July 10, 2017. The revised
document is effective as of July 17, 2017. These revised Specifications are to be used in
conjunction with individual contract specifications and recognized authorities governing
safe practices Or municipal engineering.
The Specifications, including the revisions, have been prepared to provide the user with
We requirements for bidding and/or working on City of Saint John construction projects.
Comments and/or suggestions from users that will assist in enhancing the current
Specifications are welcomed and should be made in writing to Susan Steven -Power,
P.Eng. It is the intention of City staff to review all comments and/or suggestions
received, to consult on those ideas and to consider the submissions for future revisions to
the General Specifications document.
The 2017 General Specifications are available online at: www.saintjohn.ca. To view or
download a copy of the document, select the Tenders and Proposals link and click the
2017 General Specifications file, found under the Resources section. A list of the
sections revised for 2017 is included at the front of the document.
The City of Saint John looks forward to working with you in utilizing this Specification
and providing high-quality, cost-effective service to and for the citizens of Saint John.
Yours truly,
F) c
Brian Keenan, P. Eng.
Chief City Engineer
c. City Manager
Common CIerk
Purchasing Agent
P.O. Box 1971 C.P. 1971
Saint John, NB Saint John, N. -B.
Canada E2L4L1 Canada E2L4L1
www.saint3n.ca
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