Forum: Bridge Failures: Are We Next?

Sponsored by APWA - Washington State Chapter

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
4:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.
Rock Salt on Latitude 47
1232 Westlake Avenue North, Seattle

Program Panel
Tim Lane, P.E., Supervising Engineer, King County Bridge Operations
John Buswell, Interim Director. Bridge Maintenance & Operations, City of Seattle DOT
Harvey Coffman, S.E., Director of Bridge Preservation, Washington State Dept. Of Transportation
Moderator: Einer Handeland, P.E.,Parsons-Brinckerhoff

Program Description
The I-35 bridge disaster in Minnesota brought attention to the condition of infrastructure in this country. How does Washington State and our local area compare with the rest of the nation? What are we doing to prevent a I-35 bridge disaster here? A panel of public sector leaders, who are responsible for infrastructure maintenance, will talk about bridge preservation issues and steps taken to protect the public from infrastructure failure in the Pacific Northwest. Topics will include: Infrastructure Status, Inspection Process, and Infrastructure Management.

To Register: http://www.apwa-wa.org/training/training_schedule.aspx?cid=89

Now Online - Bidder Responsibility Guidelines

The Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB), which adopted the Suggested Guidelines for Bidder Responsibility on October 11, 2007, published the Suggested Guidelines on their website today. Click on CPARB's website to view the Suggested Guidelines.

Project Delivery Systems

Public works construction projects in Washington state are procured through a variety of project delivery systems. Not all public agencies in the state are authorized to use all of the methods listed below. If you would like more information about any of these contracting mechanisms, please let me know and I would be glad to either talk with you or write more information about it on this blog.

Design/Bid/Build: The traditional method of contracting for public works project is often referred to as "Design/Bid/Build." The agency hires a separate firm to design the project (usually an architect or engineer). The agency then publicly bids the project, and contracts with the contractor submitting the low responsive bid to build the project. RCW 39.04. Small Works Rosters are a subset of Design/Bid/Build as are Limited Public Works projects (39.04.155).

Design/Build: The agency hires one firm to design and build the project. RCW 39.10.

General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM): The agency hires a contractor early in the design phase to help with constructability reviews, estimating, and value engineering, based on qualifications and some bid prices with the bulk of the contract amount being negotiated. RCW 39.10.340 through 39.10.410.

Job Order Contracting: This method involves hiring a contractor to do work orders based on pricing in a unit price book. RCW 39.10.

Energy Service Companies (ESCO): This method involves hiring a contractor to propose energy savings equipment in public buildings that the contractor guarantees will save energy costs over a specific period of time. RCW 39.35.

Building Engineering Systems: Limited design/build types of projects are permitted for certain work under this law. RCW 39.04.290.

Contracting Training

There are a number of organizations that regularly sponsor training applicable for government employees responsible for contracting and procurement issues. I've included links to a number of them on my website (www.mpurdy.com) and have listed a few of them below.

APWA (Washington State Chapter)
WSDOT (Local Technical Assistance Program)
Nahabit & Associates, Inc.
NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials)
Lorman
American Purchasing Society

In addition, I'm available to provide training either for one agency or a group of agencies on a variety of topics related to procurement, construction and consultant contracting.

GC/CM Training

The AGC and others will be sponsoring another training session on the new Washington State law dealing with General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) public works contracting. It is tentatively set for January 31st and February 1st next year and is a two day session. Keep an eye on the AGC website for further details.

CPARB Adopts Guidelines for Bidder Responsibility

On Thursday, October 11th, the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) met in Olympia and voted to approve the Suggested Guidelines for Bidder Responsibility. The Guidelines were developed to assist public agencies in Washington State implement the provisions of SHB 2010, regarding mandatory bidder responsibility criteria, subcontractor responsibility criteria, and optional supplemental bidder responsibility criteria.

CPARB will be posting the Suggested Guidelines to their website soon so they will be available to all.

If you have any questions about the Suggested Guidelines, please feel free to contact me.

2007 Legislative Changes Now Codified in RCWs

The legislation approved by the State Legislature this last spring has now been codified into RCWs and is available online. Rather than incorporate the changes into the existing law, there is a separate section on the RCW web page entitled 2007 RCW Supplement.

Bidder Responsibility Guidelines Approved by Subcommittee

The Industry-Wide Subcommittee of the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board voted on Friday, October 5th to recommend that the draft Suggested Guidelines for Bidder Responsibility be adopted by CPARB at their upcoming meeting on October 11th.

Status Update on Guidelines for Bidder Responsibility

The Task Force for Bidder Responsibility Guidelines met on Tuesday to discuss the draft appendices to the guidelines. It was a productive session. The Task Force concluded that there were a couple of issues that required more discussion, and made a note of the issues as placeholders in the guidelines. This was done in the interest of moving the guidelines forward for consideration to the Industry-Wide Subcommittee on Friday and CPARB next Thursday. The current plan is to ask CPARB to adopt the guidelines at their meeting next week.