By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The Wichita firm hired by the city of Hays a year ago for Phase 1 design services to rebuild the city’s aging wastewater treatment plant did not do the job to the city’s satisfaction.
According to a memo to city commissioners from Water Resources Director Johnny O’Conner, CDM Smith failed to meet required deadlines and failed to stay within the city’s budget for development of a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price).
“At the 90% (completion) milestone, CDM Smith was at $35 million, well over the City’s budget of $27.6 million,” O’Conner wrote in his memo. “We did not receive a formal GMP until August of 2016. When we did receive the GMP proposal, it was for $30.7 million. CDM was aware of the budget from day one.”
City staff, along with Project Manager Stan Christopher of HDR Engineering, want to issue an RFP (Request For Proposal) to the two other finalist design-build teams, Burns & Mac/CAS Construction and Black & Veatch/Garney, asking them to submit lump sum proposals for the Phase 2 construction agreement. O’Conner included in his memo to commissioners that “HDR immediately noticed CDM trending over budget and made every effort to keep them on track.”
Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood said “we had to go back to the drawing board a little bit with the process.”
“We want to get another design/build firm on board to do Phase 2 of the project which will actually be 100% of the design. So the new firm would complete the design that CDM started and then they would actually go in to the construction part of that process,” Wood explained. “We’re going to talk to commissioners (at Thursday’s work session) about opening up bids for that process. There’s still two firms that were in the running when we initially did the search that we will ask if they’re interested in bidding for the second phase of that project.”
“CDM Smith’s failure will likely add cost to the water treatment plant project,” O’Conner wrote in his memo. “Although several items will have to be re-engineered to bring down the total project cost,” city staff has reported they are “confident any added costs can be absorbed without increasing the amount borrowed from the State Revolving Loan Fund or increasing wastewater rates.”
In September 2015, city commissioners voted for a triple-increase of rates for sewer customers over a period of six years in anticipation of the $30.26 million dollar wastewater treatment plant upgrade and replacement of aging sewer lines.
Click here for the complete agenda of the Feb. 2 work session.