City Council

Agenda Request

Agenda Of:

May 6, 2008

Agenda Request No:

III H

Initiated By:

Michael Leech, Assistant Public Works Director

Responsible Department:

Public Works

Presented By:

Michael Leech, Assistant Public Works Director

Department Head:

mike hobbs, director of public works

Additional Department. Head (s):

Sharlett Chowning,

IT Director

Subject / Proceeding:

City wireless network design

Award professional engineering design services contract

Exhibits:

Consultant proposal

conceptual wireless network schematic

Clearances

Approval

Legal:

Joe morris, city attorney

Executive Director:

n/a

Purchasing:

Linda Symank,

director of ficsal Services

Asst. City Manager:

Karen Daly

Budget:

Bryan Guinn,

Budget Manager

City Manager:

Allen Bogard/for AB

Budget

Expenditure Required: $

213,950

Current Budget $

550,000

Additional Funding: $

N/A

Recommended Action

The Public Works and IT Departments request City Council award a professional engineering services contract to Traffic Engineers Incorporated in the amount of $213,950 for the preparation of TxDOT ready construction plans, specifications, and a bid package for a wireless network and traffic related components.

Executive Summary

In February 2008, City Council authorized the execution of an Advanced Funding Agreement (AFA) with TxDOT for the construction of a wireless communications network to enhance the City’s Traffic Management Center. The AFA pertains to the 2006 CMAQ grant the Public Works Department received from HGAC valued at $1,575,000. The primary points of the AFA are as follows:

· Eighty percent of construction costs will be paid for via Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) funding with the City paying the remaining 20 percent as a local match.

· The City will pay 100 percent of the design costs.

· The City will be responsible for the bidding and construction management for the project.

Traditionally, TxDOT has been responsible for the bidding and construction management components of past City CMAQ projects. In this case the City will administer bidding and construction management. It is advantageous for the City to administer these components of the project as the City bid process traditionally takes less time than the TxDOT bid process. On a related note, as the design nears completion staff will negotiate a contract for construction administration with a qualified firm. We believe that a better price for this service can be negotiated once we have a clear understanding of what is proposed to be built once the final design is complete.

The initial plan for this network is to construct it in a flexible and scaleable manner so that future expansion can be accomplished. During the development of the PER and needs assessment studies for this project, it was determined that building the project to accommodate traffic needs as well as the needs for other City services was the most cost effective way to capitalize on this opportunity. The network will provide a platform upon which the Traffic Operations Division will be able to implement state of the art traffic management technologies such as Adaptive Traffic Management. Adaptive Traffic Management technology allows a series of intersections to adapt to changing traffic conditions in real time. Projects to implement these traffic improvements will be requested for inclusion in the 2009 CIP through the budget process.

On the exhibit there are ten pink asterisks which represent the main collection or aggregation points for the proposed conceptual network. The collection points are located at various city facilities including city hall, the police station and the public works facility and at the fire stations. By various means including several different wireless frequencies and wired infrastructure, information from the traffic signal systems will be sent to the main collection points and on to the City’s internal network. Our present traffic network, which is comprised of older communications technologies such as low band width spread spectrum radios and ISDN lines, is incapable of providing the bandwidth necessary to transition to Adaptive Traffic Management. Additionally our present traffic network does not have the ability to accommodate future projects. The new network will be owned and operated by the City.

The following schedule includes the major milestones for the project and was developed cooperatively with TxDOT and our consultant team:

Milestone	Proposed Date
Advanced Funding Agreement approval	February 2008
City Council award of design contract	May 2008
Engineering Design	May 2008 through December 2008
TxDOT design review and approval	January 2008 through April 2009
Complete Design Revisions	May 2009
Award Construction Administration Contract	May 2009
Award Construction Contract	June 2009
Complete Construction	October 2009

The City will be reimbursed for the construction of this project on a monthly basis. When a construction contract is awarded, the City will pay the contractor and subsequently submit an invoice to TxDOT. TxDOT will reimburse the City 80 percent of the amount billed. The remaining funds the City will be required to front for the project will be requested through the 2009 CIP budget process.

The primary consultant for this project is Traffic Engineers Inc (TEI). TEI submitted a proposal for the RFQ for Engineering and Design Services prepared by the Engineering Department in January. The Public Works and Engineering departments have done numerous projects with TEI and have always been pleased with their work. They are an especially good fit for this project as they have done all of the design work on past City CMAQ projects and are most familiar with the TxDOT design review processes. A significant portion of the design work will be handled by a sub-consultant. The consultant, Civitium, was the firm that completed a needs assessment for the IT department in February. Both Public Works and IT are confident in their level of expertise and believe that they are an excellent fit for this project. The work to be completed by Civitium is referenced in the TEI proposal. Both firms will be working cooperatively on the project.

Budgeted funding for this project is available in CIP No. TR0701 (Traffic Technology Upgrades) with an unencumbered balance of $497,000.

The Public Works Department requests City Council award a professional engineering services contract to Traffic Engineers Incorporated in the amount of $213,950 for the preparation of TxDOT ready construction plans, specifications, and a bid package for a wireless network and traffic related components.

Exhibits

conceptual wireless network schematic