Road Report

The reason the Council authorized LM Contract 5-2009 was to award the job to the lowest responsible bidder for the reconstruction of the sanitary sewer on CP and Prairie Avenues, and Owen Street. There were ten bids received at the July bid opening for the CP/Prairie/Owen Project. The Engineer reviewed the bids and recommended to the Manager that Council direct the Manager to sign the contract with Rawson Contractors, Inc. of Madison, WI.

Prior Council Action:
In May of 2001, the Council approved the Sanitary Sewer Report from Strand and Associates. The report recommended the CP/Prairie/Owen Project as a high priority because the ten inch sanitary sewer line had flows that were constantly at or over capacity.
In October of 2007, the engineer made recommendations for sanitary sewer projects and the CP/Prairie/Owen Project was recommended for 2009.
In January of 2009, the Council discussed the change in use of funds borrowed to purchase land for the Wastewater Treatment Plant at their December 16, 2008 meeting. The CP/Prairie/Owen Project was recommended by staff as a project that would provide significant benefits to the system. The City Council approved Motion 09-1-2-2 that used the $1.1 million in 2008 Sanitary Sewer Financing to construct the CP/Prairie/Owen Project.
On August 4, 2009, the City Council reviewed the proposed bids for the project and voted to approve awarding the bid for contract 5-2009 CP/Prairie/Owen Project to Rawson Contractors, Inc. for $636.264.00.

Summary:
This is approximately half of a larger project recommended in the 2001 Sanitary Sewer Study to provide relief to the existing 10-IN sewer from Main Street to Stony Road. The limits of this project would be from the west end of Prairie Avenue to the Wastewater Treatment Plant at Stony Road. A new 15-IN sewer was recommended to be installed to replace the existing 10-IN sewer which consistently is at or above capacity. The installation of a single 15-inch line was projected to provide enough design capacity to satisfy the estimated future needs of the sewer from Mulberry to Stony Road as calculated in the 2001 sanitary sewer study. The report’s estimated cost for replacing the existing 10-IN sewer from Mulberry to Stony Road is $586,000.
The City Wastewater Utility had borrowed $1.1 million in July of 2008 to purchase land for expansion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The purchase of land for plant expansion ended up on hold until 2014. The utility could not leave the funds unused for more than two years based on federal arbitrage requirements. The City Bond Attorney’s determined that the funds could be considered available for other uses in the Wastewater Utility. Staff recommended the city use the funds to complete several projects including the CP/Prairie/Owen Project.
In January of 2009, staff discussed the project with the Council and at their January 22nd meeting they approved using the funds for the CP/Prairie/Owen Project.
Staff immediately discussed and proposed a planning process and schedule for CP/Prairie/Owen Project with the Manager. The schedule was for the survey to be completed by May 1, preliminary design completed and Chapter 30 permit submitted by June 1, sanitary sewer permit submitted by July 1, advertise on July 16 and 23, open bids on July 30, award bids on August 3, start construction on August 17 and project completion on October 30th.
By May of 2010, information was being gathered on material prices, utility conditions, project scope, contracts and legal issues.
Based on information and discussion in June and July with the Public Works Board and Council, the project was changed to pulverize and overlay of Ferry Drive contingent on utility conditions.
By September off 2010, the decision was made to add lead water services, sanitary sewer and storm sewer work to the project. The project scope changed to add base and asphalt replacement on portions of the project.
The base geographic data for the project was collected by May and staff was starting to prepare designs, notify utilities and apply for permits.
Preliminary designs were completed and being reviewed by staff at the beginning of June.
The Corp of Engineers responded to the proposal on June 19th.
· The DWD prevailing wage rates were received on July 1, 2009.
· The DNR sanitary sewer permit was initially approved on July 2, 2009. The formal approval letter was not sent out until September 11, 2009 pending approval of the Chapter 30 permit.
· The DWD White Sheet was received on July 2nd.
· The DNR stormwater runoff permit was approved on July 6, 2009.
· The DNR chapter 30 permit was approved on August 3, 2009.
· This project was advertised for bids in the Lake Mills Leader on July 2nd and July 9th, 2009.
· Bids were opened on July 16th, 2009 at 1:00 PM at City Hall. The apparent low bidder was Rawson Contractors.
· On August 4th, 2009 the City Council awarded the project (base and alternative bids) to Rawson Contractors for their low total bid of $636,264.00.
· The contract received the final signature on August 17th.
· The City relocated a section of water main that was in conflict with the sanitary sewer.
· The preconstruction conference was held on August 25, 2009 at 10:30 AM at City Hall.
· Construction started on September 9th, 2009. Rawson Contractors had two pipe crews working under two different foreman to complete the base bid and alternative bid work simultaneously.
· On October 13th, 2009 one of Rawson’s pipe crews damaged the City-owned utility pole at the southeast corner of Owen Street and CP Avenue. Rawson Contractors has been invoiced a total of $1,470 by Lake Mills Water & Light for cost of repairs.
· On October 16th, 2009 one of Rawson’s pipe crews damaged a stop sign at Owen Street and CP Avenue. The cost to Rawson to repair this sign and support was $105.26.
· On October 21st, 2009 the City approved adding full-width asphalt pavement and base replacement on Prairie Avenue from Mulberry Street to the westerly dead end by Short Street. Additional cost was $23,493.83.
· On October 26th, 2009 one of the pipe crew foreman for Rawson was laid off. This left one pipe crew and one foreman to complete all remaining work on the project.
· On November 18th, 2009 the sanitary sewer installation was complete.
· On November 20th, 2009 Payne and Dolan paved binder and surface asphalt on Stony Road and Owen Street. Binder only was paved on Prairie Avenue.
· During the week of November 16th, 2009 the City and Rawson Contractors agreed to allow the asphalt surface paving to be moved to 2010.
· On January 6th, 2010 the WWTP Staff was notified by the property owner at 968 Mulberry Street that they had a sanitary sewer backup problem. A local plumber had tried to clean the line, but was unable to get the cleaning tool to pass completely through the lateral. A sewer line locating tool was used by another plumber to determine the route of the pipe leaving the building. This showed the lateral flowing towards Prairie Avenue to a location where Rawson Contractors did not install a sanitary lateral connection.
· On January 6th, 2010 Strand Associates notified Rawson Contractors of their missed sanitary lateral connection and inquired about their schedule to complete this connection. Rawson Contractors stated they were unable to have a crew come to the site for at least 2 weeks. Strand Associates notified City Staff of this, and then notified Rawson Contractors that the City could not wait this long to have this repaired, and they would be using Forest Landscaping and Construction to complete this repair. Strand Associates notified Rawson Contractors that the costs to do this repair work would need to be reimbursed to the City by Rawson or withheld from final payment under the construction contract.
· On January 9th, 2010 Forest Landscaping and Construction was on site connecting the sanitary sewer lateral at 968 Mulberry Street. The area was backfilled and restored with City-owned asphalt millings by January 12th, 2010.
· A water main break occurred on September 3rd, 2010 the same day the new surface asphalt was installed. The break occurred near the intersection of Prairie Avenue and Pope Street. Forest Landscaping and Construction was called in to fix the water main break.
· A sinkhole appeared on September 3rd, 2010 in the block of Prairie Avenue between Mulberry Street and Prospect Street.
· Between September 8th and 10th, 2010 the City Streets Department repaired the subbase and base areas at the water main break and sinkhole as well as installed a weeper pipe at the sinkhole location.
· On September 14th, 2010 Payne and Dolan completed the surface paving on Prairie Avenue.
· On November 19th, 2010 the punch list items were completed by Rawson Contractors and the subcontractors.
· Rawson Contractors are currently working on a pay request to cover the asphalt paving work that was completed in 2010.
The final sanitary sewer project installed 4 – five foot manholes, 14 – four foot manholes, 813 lf of eighteen inch sanitary sewer, 3164 lf of fifteen inch sanitary sewer, 142 lf of eight inch sanitary sewer, 502 lf of six inch sanitary sewer, and related appurtenances and materials. The street improvements were 8530 sy of ¾” base course, 6030 sy of three inch base course, 8530 sy of two inch asphalt binder, 3200 sy of two inch asphalt surface, 5330 sy of one and a half inch asphalt surface, 233 lf of thirty inch curb and gutter, and 320 sf of asphalt driveway.

The project was not completed in a timely matter and this project has not received a final pay request from the Contractor.