By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
The city of Hays will change its bidding process for the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant. Currently, the city goes through a design/bid/build process where/ in most cases, three to four different firms are contracted — one architectural firm to design a preliminary project, another to provide a more complex and complete architectural design, and a construction firm to build the project.
There is also sometimes another architectural firm that provides oversight of the project. The city has had issues with this type of a process in other projects that have been done over the past couple of years, including the shade structures at Hays Aquatic Park and the parking lot at Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex.
“(Under the design/bid/build), we don’t believe we get the best process or innovation,” Said Asssistant Ctiy Manger Paul Briseno. “The lack of communication and collaboration can sometimes lead to finger-pointing, which costs the city money and a lot of public distress.”
Briseno also mentioned this process can lead to several extra overhead costs due to unexpected expenditures when the project is being built.
The new design/build process will allow the city to take more of a collaborative approach. The process will begin with a request for qualifications for an owner-representative who will help chose the contractors and oversee the project.
“We’re going to be looking for someone with technical expertise because of the total cost of approximately $28 million,” Briseno said. “It’s the largest project we’ve worked on in a while.”
Once one is hired, the city will send a request for bids and qualifications from teams of engineers and contractors, who will bid as one team. The city will pick out three and will explain parameters and guidelines for the facility. The city has budgeted around $28 million for the facility, and officials expect it to last around 20 years before another renovation will be needed.
“We’ll ask the teams to provide the best plan under those parameters, but if they can provide a plan that gives the facility more years under the same amount of money, they’ll have a leg up,” Briseno said. “There’s competition to provide the best product possible.”
Briseno also said they plan on paying the losing teams for their proposals so that some ideas can be worked into the winning bid if they are more efficient, which creates a “win for the city.” They plan on paying between $50-150 thousand dollars to the losing bidders.
“You’re not going to get the engineers and contractors to do a 30 percent design for free,” said City Manager Toby Dougherty. “But you’ll get them to do it if they know there is going to be a stipend, and they’re going to try to be innovative in order to win the contract.”
Commissioner Henry Schwaller brought up concerns about choosing the right applicants.
“If we chose the wrong owner-representative, the whole thing could go wrong,” said Schwaller. “In a way, it’s really not different other than you have the builder and the engineer working together.”
Dougherty said that he would welcome a commission representative on the committee to select the owner-representative and also reminded Schwaller that the position is a “paid advocate for the city.”
The city will post an opening for the owner-representative and will bring a recommendation to the city commission. The facility must be open by 2018 in order to comply with Kansas Department of Health and Environment standards.