City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Meeting Date: 10/11/2010 Item Number: C-4
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: Approval of a Professional Services Agreement
with Psomas for the Preparation of a Project Study Report Equivalent (PSRE) and
the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Call for
Projects Application for the Duquesne Avenue Operations Study Project, P-913
Contact Person/Dept.: Elaine Jeng/PW,
Mate Gaspar/PW
Phone Number: 310-253-5621and 310-253-
5602
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: []
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date: _______________
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Agenda and Meetings – City Council (10/06/10), (E-Mail)
Psomas, Iteris Inc., KOA Corporation, and Paller Roberts. (10/06/10)
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson(10/05/10)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol Schwab (by H. Baker) (10/06/10)
Chief Financial Officer Approval:
Jeff Muir (by N. Kimball) (10/06/10)
City Manager Approval:
John M. Nachbar (10/06/10)
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council approve a professional services agreement with
Psomas for the preparation of (a) a Project Study Report Equivalent (PSRE) as
required by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
Call for Projects application and (b) the preparation of the City’s Call for Projects
application to fund the Duquesne Avenue Operations Study Project, P913.
BACKGROUND:
This year’s approved capital improvement budget includes the Duquesne Avenue
Operations Study Project, P-913. This is a long term project that envisions the
improvement of traffic operations on Duquesne Avenue between Jefferson
Boulevard and Washington Boulevard. Over the years, the City has obtained right-
of-way from adjacent properties for potential future widening. Also, since the closure
of Higuera Street at Hayden Avenue in 1996, some traffic has been diverted to
Duquesne Avenue. Duquesne Avenue is a two lane street without a traversable left
turn lane, bike lanes, and left turn pockets at Braddock Drive and Lucerne Avenue.
MTA indicated that there are approximately $100M available for the 2011 Call for
Projects cycle. Staff intends to submit an application under the Regional Surface
Transportation Improvement (RSTI) mode of the 2011 Call for Projects. Historically
this mode was combined with the Goods Movement category, however during the
current cycle, Metro announced the Goods Movement and RSTI would be separated
into two categories making it difficult to anticipate the amount of money out of the
$100M that will go to either the RSTI or the Goods Movement modes. Additionally, City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
MTA also announced that MTA’s contribution to RSTI projects would be limited to $6
million per project. The local match will be 35% of project cost. The application was
anticipated to be released in late October but in recent announcements, the release
date is now postponed to early November 2010, with a due date some time in
January 2011.
DISCUSSION:
Pursuant to Culver City Municipal Code § 3.07.085.A, a contract for personal or
professional services is not required to be formally bid, provided that the contract is
based upon competitive quotations whenever practical. In this case staff opted to
conduct a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
On August 24, 2010, staff released the RFP requesting qualified firms to provide a
PSRE studying at least seven (7) project alternatives to improve traffic
conditions/operations along Duquesne Avenue. Proposers were encouraged to
provide additional alternatives appropriately. As required by the MTA’s PSRE
guideline, one of the alternatives must include a no-build option. Other alternatives
vary from striping to additional right-of-way acquisition to widen Duquesne Avenue to
include 2 traversable lanes, one median turn lane and bi-directional bike lanes.
The pre-proposal meeting was held on September 8, 2010. Proposals were due on
September 16, 2010 at 4pm. Four (4) proposals were received from the following
companies: Iteris Inc., KOA Corporation, Psomas, and Paller-Roberts Engineering,
Inc. Paller-Roberts Engineering, Inc’s proposal was submitted after the specified
time and therefore was eliminated from consideration.
The City specified in the RFP that proposals would be evaluated by a panel of City
staff based on the following criteria: understanding of the work to be done, quality of
the assigned team members, previous experience with similar projects, past project
track record, and total cost of services to the City. The City also specified that the
panel will select the proposal that best fulfills the requirements and is the best value
to the City. It was stated that the lowest price proposal will not, necessarily, be
selected solely on that criteria.
Each of the proposals provided unique features that fulfilled most, if not all, of the
criteria. Each firm emphasized different components of the project. For example,
Iteris, Inc. focused on the evaluation of the project alternatives and provided very
detailed exhibits which visually layed out the project alternatives. Additionally, Iteris
Inc.’s creativity provided another alternative to better utilize the existing right-of-way.
KOA Corporation provided insights on the application process, strategizing the best
way to achieve grant funding. Psomas provided emphasis on the right-of-way
acquisition and community outreach aspect, seeing these as potentially the most
challenging topics in moving the project forward.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Each proposal was deemed to be qualified with adequate staff to meet the project
schedule. Price proposals between the three candidate firms were very competitive.
Iteris, Inc. KOA
Corporation
Psomas
$68,696.00 $77,870.00 $69,600
To make a selection, staff put together a spreadsheet of the cost, broken down by
task as identified by each proposer to further understand their estimate of the level
of effort. The breakdown is provided in Attachment 1.
While all three proposers demonstrated sufficient qualifications, adequate staffing,
and competitive pricing, staff is recommending the selection of Psomas as the firm
with the best combination of expertise and project emphasis that most closely meets
the City’s expectations and needs for the project.
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
The Duquesne Avenue Study was approved as part of the City Council Adopted
Budget for Fiscal Year 2010/2011 to be funded with $60,000 of West Los Angeles
Traffic Mitigation Funds. To meet the necessary budget, $16,960 in West Los
Angeles Traffic Mitigation Funds will be transferred from P-881, Sepulveda
Boulevard Widening. After the transfer, there will be sufficient funds to cover the
proposed contract and there will be $3,739,640 of West Los Angeles Traffic
Mitigation Funds remaining in P-881 for that project
MOTION:
1) Approve a professional services agreement with Psomas for a not-to-exceed
contract amount of $69,600 for the Duquesne Avenue Operations Study, P-913;
and,
2) Authorize the Public Works Director/City Engineer to approve change orders
totaling a not-to-exceed amount of $10,000, if necessary; and,
3) Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and,
4) Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.