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Council amends CIP and awards citywide curb ramp contract; council questions low bid spread
Summary
Council amended the CIP to add the citywide curb ramp improvement project and awarded the construction contract to the low bidder (Villalobos/Vila Lobos variant noted in staff report); council members questioned a roughly 26% spread between the engineer’s estimate and the low bid, and staff described contractual protections and contingency planning.
The City Council on July 7 approved an amendment to the capital improvement program to add the citywide curb ramp improvement project and awarded the construction contract to the apparent low bidder identified in the staff report.
Councilmember (speaker 8) asked staff to explain a large disparity between the city engineer’s estimate and the low bidder. Engineering staff (introducing a newer associate engineer, Sean Wright) said the low bid resulted from very low lump-sum entries (for mobilization and traffic control) while other bidders were higher in those line items; staff said contractual controls, inspection and a 15% contingency reduce risk of underbidding creating overages for the city. The engineer noted bid items such as striping were higher in the low bid but represented a small fraction of work.
Council then opened public comment (none in-chamber on the item), moved and seconded approval of item 6, and the motion passed unanimously. The staff report lists the contractor name and the base contract amount as presented to council in the meeting packet; council members also discussed how Measure S appropriations and CIP forecasting interplay with the project list.
