The RFP is for Geotechnical Engineering Services – Three Year Standing Offer Agreement Services required and minimum requirements: General Description Woodlands County (the “County”) seeks proposals from interested parties (“Proposals”) for the following: Geotechnical Engineering Services – Three Year Standing Offer Agreement The term of the assignment is for three years with a potential for a two-year extension. At the end of the term Woodlands County may extend the agreement to the Proponent to complete work already commenced under the agreement. Woodlands County wishes to select one firm to provide engineering services for geotechnical projects and other engineering assignments related to public works, which may come up during the next few years. This will be a standing offer and Woodlands County will negotiate work plans with the successful proponent based on the rates and fees submitted in the proposal for projects as they arise. County generally follows ATEC’s engineering consulting guidelines, standard specifications and general conditions, with some revisions. Detailed Description Field Inspection and Risk Assessment of Identified Geohazard Sites o Conduct annual field inspections of identified geohazard sites. Currently the County has 4 geohazard site locations. The Consultant shall be responsible for planning the field inspection tour timing and itinerary, and shall coordinate with, and include County staff. Field inspection tours should be scheduled for May/June, after snow melt and prior to growth of obscuring vegetation. Trips to frost heave sites shall be conducted in mid to late winter. o During the field inspection tour, the Consultant shall collect relevant photographs, measurements and observations at each site, and assess the level of risk of each site for the County. o Prepare a concise written inspection report for each site. The purpose of the report is to document changes in site conditions, discuss site risk level to County, instrumentation readings, and recommend a list of action items, including maintenance and capital repair options, with high-level cost estimates. This report may also highlight recommendations such as site inspection frequency, requirements for instrumentation replacement or repair, geotechnical investigation, LiDAR, photogrammetry, survey, recommended maintenance actions, etc. More detailed action item descriptions should be included in the annual inspection report. Sites requiring urgent work should be brought to the attention of the County and the reports for these sites completed on a priority basis. o New sites may be added to the program as new geohazard issues arise. Reading, Processing and Interpretation of Geotechnical Instrumentation Data o Complete annual instrumentation readings, process the data, and prepare a monitoring report including engineering interpretation of the data for each of the instrumentation sites. o Each instrument shall be marked or tagged with weather resistant identification numbers that must be easily legible. Re-mark the installation numbers as required with paint markers (not permanent ink markers) if they become faded or obscured. This work is to be done during the instrumentation reading program and is considered incidental. o The final presentation of all slope inclinometer readings is to be in metric units and provided in PDF format. County will provide the current reports for each slope inclinometer, if available. The consultant shall maintain data files and may be asked to provide electronic copies of all functioning instrumentation files with the spring instrumentation report. o From time-to-time instrumentation installations incur damage through mischief, accident, or forces of nature. The Consultant will assess any damaged installation noted during their scheduled instrumentation reading trip, prepare a summary list of all damaged instrumentations and make appropriate recommendations in their instrumentation reports for the repair or replacement of any damaged instruments. Annotated photographs of the affected installations should accompany the damage assessment. This information should be included as an appendix in the instrumentation report, and summarized in the Field Inspection Report and Summary of Action Items Spreadsheet as described in B.4 and B.5. County reserves the right to undertake instrumentation replacement or repair using forces other than the consultant. o The Consultant will supply knowledgeable and experienced staff for reading and processing of the instrumentation data. It is expected that monitoring personnel will be familiar with calibration requirements, correct handling procedures and error checking capabilities of their equipment, and of the reasonable and historical ranges of readings for each instrument. It will be the responsibility of the Consultant to ensure all equipment is functioning properly prior to each trip. The Consultant will be reimbursed at the unit price in Schedule B for each instrumentation reading. The unit price shall include all on-site hourly fees, travel expenses, disbursements, engineering assessment, report preparation and documentation, and discussion with County staff, including all incidentals necessary to carry out the work. Call-Out Inspections o Periodically, new geohazard sites will arise, or conditions at an existing site will change suddenly, requiring urgent expert recommendations to protect infrastructure and ensure road user safety. The Consultant will provide timely response to call-out requests from the County. The purpose of a call-out request is to: document site conditions; provide an engineering assessment of current and potential risks; provide recommendations related to public safety; assess the risk level rating; and to summarize the site findings in a call-out report. All call-out sites shall at minimum be located by hand-held GPS. o In response to a call-out request, the Consultant’s project geotechnical engineer or designate must make themselves available and respond to the call-out request within 48 hours. A negotiated response time will be used for less-urgent situations. Verbal authorization by the County representative or their designate will be considered as approval to proceed with the call-out inspection. o Upon completion of the call-out field inspection, the Consultant will submit a concise letter report. The report shall document: The Consultants’ observations of the site conditions including sketches of the site plan, profile, and annotated photographs; Pertinent comments regarding the site background; a preliminary assessment of the potential geohazard failure mechanism; A preliminary assessment of the risk to the public, the environmental, adjacent facilities and County facilities; and, Recommendations for further investigation and potential mitigative measures including a high-level estimate of costs for the proposed interventions. o If immediate measures are required to ensure public safety, the Consultant shall provide prompt recommendations for these measures (via on-site verbal instructions and a follow-up email) in advance of submitting the call-out report. Engineering Design and Construction Supervision Services for Selected Geohazard Mitigation Projects o Provide engineering investigation, design and construction supervision services for capital repair projects at selected geohazard sites. The scope of work may include geotechnical investigation and instrumentation, preliminary design, detailed design, tender preparation and construction monitoring at existing or emerging geohazard sites. The engineering scope of work will be negotiated on a fee for service basis. Typical types of geohazard repairs may include, but are not limited to: Toe berm for embankment stabilization; Minor highway realignment for geohazard avoidance; Cast-in-place concrete tangent pile wall for landslide stabilization; Driven steel H-pile reinforcement for embankment stabilization; Backslope flattening for slope stabilization; Streambank erosion protection works; Rockfall barriers and catchment design; and, Ditch erosion repairs using a variety of methods. The Consultant should have expertise in these types of civil works either within their team or through sub-consultant arrangements. In addition to this RFP for Geotechnical Engineering Services, the County has retained or in the process of retaining a Roadway Engineering Consultant, and a Bridge Engineering Consultant. The County reserves the right to assign component(s) of projects to the Roadway Engineering Consultant, the Bridge Engineering Consultant, the Geotechnical Engineering Consultant, or a combination thereof.
