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AMENDMENT NO. ONE TO CONTRACT K-1718-75: BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, AND FREESE & NICHOLS, INC., INCREASING THE CONTRACT AMOUNT BY $78,255 FOR A REVISED CONTRACT AMOUNT OF $88,255 TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL DESIGN SERVICES AND PREPARATION OF PLANS FOR THE CONSTITUTION STREET MULTIMODAL PATH BETWEEN JENKINS AVENUE AND CLASSEN BOULEVARD, AND BUDGET APPROPRIATION FROM THE CAPITAL FUND BALANCE.
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BACKGROUND: For a number of years, the City Council has supported projects that have responded to citizens’ desires for improved facilities to enhance their quality of life. High on the citizens’ list have been the Legacy Trail sidewalks that are wide and long and safe, and intended to accommodate walkers, runners, bicyclists, and wheel-chair users. The bicycling community has been particularly active in promoting projects such as bike lanes, shared traffic lanes, and separated bike paths that will provide safe routes for citizens desiring to participate in this active lifestyle. With the funding help of some federal grants, the City has been able to make significant improvements to the sidewalk systems in various areas of Norman, especially adjacent to schools.
On June 22, 2009, City staff was able to obtain a Transportation Enhancement (TE) grant to construct a one-mile long segment of a separated multimodal path going toward Lake Thunderbird, a popular destination, along State Highway 9 (SH-9) from 24th Avenue SE to 36th Avenue SE. On November 13, 2012, City Council approved Contract K-1213-118 between the City and Cardinal Engineering for a feasibility and design of the SH-9 Multimodal Path - Phase I project. The construction of that path was recently completed by contractor RDNJ, Inc. dba A-Tech Paving.
The Transportation Enhancement grant program has now been renamed the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grants, but their funding limits are similar, i.e. they will provide federal 80% funding (up to $600,000 maximum) for qualified projects (with 20% matching funding from local governments) selected by a TAP selection committee comprised of Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG) representatives. When the Federal Fiscal Year 2015 - 2020 TAP grant “call for applications” was opened to municipalities, City staff made applications for three multimodal paths, within the city: (1) along Constitution Street, from Jenkins Avenue to Classen Boulevard, (2) along State Highway 9 (Phase II of the path to Lake Thunderbird), from 36th Avenue SE to 48th Avenue SE, and (3) along Flood Avenue, from Robinson Street to Tecumseh Road. On June 29, 2017, the City was notified that the Constitution Street and SH-9 (Phase II) projects were to be fully granted; however, the Flood Avenue path could only be partially grant-funded because funds were committed elsewhere.
DISCUSSION: The Public Works Department prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP 1718-21) to solicit engineering services proposals for three multimodal path projects in Norman. The RFP instructions indicated that the firms could propose on any number of these projects. One of the projects was to design a 10-foot wide multi-modal path along the north side of Constitution Street from Jenkins Avenue to Classen Boulevard. Sixteen proposals for this project were submitted for consideration. A Selection Committee was formed consisting of Angelo Lombardo - City Transportation Engineer; Michael Rayburn - Capital Projects Engineer; James Briggs - City Park Planner; and two at-large citizen volunteers (Dr. Tom Woodfin and Charlie Bright who are both local biking enthusiasts). As all three projects in the RFP were similar, the Selection Committee met on October 12, 2017 to evaluate proposals for all of the projects. The proposals were reviewed, and there was consensus that the overall top three firms would be selected, one for each project. At the end of the process, the committee selected Freese & Nichols, Inc. of Oklahoma City as the best suited firm for the Constitution Street Multimodal Path project.
This one-mile long Constitution Street Multimodal Path presents some special challenges in that the corridor contains two pre-stressed concrete span bridge structures and three golf cart tunnels in the vicinity of the University of Oklahoma golf course that is bisected by Constitution Street. Since those structures are not wide enough to accommodate the separated sidewalk path, it will be necessary for the consulting engineer to do a preliminary evaluation (including costs) of different options for effectuating this task. Those options would then be presented to City staff to select their preferred option before the consultant could continue the plan’s preparation. As the scopes of those options could vary significantly in cost, it was decided to break the consultant’s contract into two parts: (1) the feasibility portion that would result in a Conceptual Pre-Design Report that assesses the options, and (2) a subsequent Design portion that would engineer and prepare construction plans for the project. Part One would be designated Contract K-1718-75, and Part Two would be designated as Contract K-1718-75 Amendment No. 1.
On November 14, 2017, City Council approved Contract K-1718-75 for $10,000 with Freese & Nichols for the pre-design evaluation of the options for the Constitution Street Path. From this study, the preferred alternative modifies the existing concrete parapets and reconfigures the lane widths on the bridges to allow construction of a ten-foot path without having to do expensive widening of the structures. However, re-design of the existing drainage on the north side of Constitution Street will be necessary to accommodate the ten-foot wide multimodal path on both ends beyond the bridges. Also, the crossing of the path over the railroad tracks near the east end of the project will have to be addressed with bicycle/pedestrian gate arms and coordination with the BNSF Railway.
Staff has negotiated a $78,255 engineering fee with Freese & Nichols to provide final design services for the Constitution Street multimodal path. $59,942 of the funding has been budgeted in the FYE 2018 Capital Fund, Other Special Projects, Design (account 050-9688-431.62-01; project TR0111).
If approved, the final design services will be completed in the summer of 2019. Construction of the proposed path is anticipated to begin in early 2020.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of Amendment No. One to Contract K-1718-75 with Freese & Nichols, Inc. in the amount of $78,255 for the engineering services associated with the design of the Constitution Street Multimodal Path project, between Jenkins Avenue and Classen Boulevard. If approved, $18,313 in funds will be appropriated from the Capital Fund Balance (050-0000-253.20-00) to Constitution Multimodal Path Extension, Design (account 050-9688-431.62-01; project TR0111).