Memorandum
City of Lawrence
City Manager’s Office
To:
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Dave Corliss
City Manager
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From:
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Debbie Van Saun
Asst. City Manager
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cc:
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Chuck Soules, Public Works Director
Dave Wagner, Utilities Director
Ernie Shaw, Interim Parks & Recreation Director
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Date:
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March 13, 2007
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Re:
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In-house engineering efforts
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Commissioner Schauner requested
information regarding staff’s efforts to increase internal engineering efforts
for projects that would benefit from that approach, given the experience,
technical knowledge, and availability of appropriate staff. To that end, we
have looked at those departments with staffing capable of doing some portion of
the design and/or inspection work in-house. A summary of efforts over the last
two years follows.
Public Works Department
The attached file
contains spreadsheets for two years (2005 and 2006) and represents the projects
that were completed with City staff rather than contracting with outside
consultants. The projects are divided into categories that define the typical
level of effort needed, with the majority of effort coming in the area of
project inspection:
- City Projects – these projects
are typically “designed”, bid, and inspected using City staff. Most of our
annual street maintenance projects are handled in this manner. Examples
include the annual overlay, concrete repair, and chip & seal program.
Some facility projects are designed in house, e.g. HVAC reconstruction at
City Hall.
- Benefit District Projects –
typically these projects are deigned by an outside consultant and funding
for the consultant is provided by the developer. City staff provides
project inspection services and bills the developers for this work, based
on a percentage of the total project cost.
- Private Projects – differ from
benefit district projects (above) in that the developer funds the projects
without utilizing benefit district financing. The arrangements for design
and inspection are typically as noted above – outside consultants are paid
by the developer to design the project and inspections services are
provided by City staff and paid for by the developer.
- State Projects – projects
funded with a majority of Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT)
funding can involve either outside consultant engineering or in-house
staff engineering. A recent example of in-house staff engineering was the
2005 project on 6th Street that involved re-striping from Massachusetts to Arkansas streets.
Utilities Department
There are a variety of projects
completed each year by this department that due to staff availability and level
of expertise, for which we are able to provide in-house design, construction
management, and inspection services. Here are a few examples of the types of
projects this department completes in-house:
- Sanitary sewer manhole rehab
and cured-in place pipe (CIPP) rehabilitation projects. These projects
benefit from in-house design, which includes determination of location,
preparation of specifications, completion of the bidding and construction
management processes, and project inspection.
- Kaw Water Treatment Plant parking
improvements. City staff completed the survey, plan design and
development of specifications, updated the site plan, and provided
in-house staffing for bid phase, inspection phase, and construction
management.
- 19th and Kasold
water tank repainting. Department staff provided inspection and testing
services and construction management for the project.
- Pump Station 44 pump
replacement. This project utilized department staff for system
evaluation, pump selection, specification development, bidding,
construction inspection and contract administration.
- Ongoing projects that benefit
from in-house staff effort include:
- Waterline and wastewater
utility extension – construction inspection
- Waterline replacement projects
– construction inspection and contract administration
- Downstream sanitary sewer
analysis – rather than relying on a consultants use of modeling and
analysis of system capacity, staff provides evaluations for appropriate
projects
- Sanitary sewer pump station
control panel installations (for existing stations) to include panel
design, construction, installation specifications, bidding, construction
inspection and contract administration
- Utility relocates for street
projects – staff provides in-house construction inspection services
- Miscellaneous sanitary sewer
improvements – staff performs system analysis and reviews design and
construction options. Depending on outcome, staff may design the
improvements and provide in-house staff to inspect and manage the
construction project
Parks & Recreation
Department
Although many of the projects
completed by this department are repair and maintenance of existing facilities,
there are some opportunities for utilizing in-house design and project
management (including inspection). Examples include the development of the
park and trail system across from Langston Hughes Elementary School, the design
of the fairway drainage on holes #1 & #15 at Eagle Bend Golf Course, development
of the master plan for South Park, the cardio room in the Community Building,
Stone Gate Park development, lighting system upgrade in buildings and outdoor
facilities, a new storage facility at the Nature Center, walking bridge design,
trail design, disc golf course design, landscape design, park drainage design,
design of court upgrades, playground design, shop renovations, and water
treatment systems upgrade in pools.
Efforts continue in these and
other departments, as appropriate, to utilize City staff to complete components
of projects that will benefit from quality control efforts and the technical
knowledge of the existing systems. Staff availability and current work loads
are often the determining factors as to whether projects can be completed
in-house.
Commissioner Schauner also asked
to see a list of engineering contracts for the Public Works Department.
Attached is a list
of those contracts for the past three years.