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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPR 19180: CHANGE ORDER NO. 1, PHASE III , SIEMENS INDUSTRY INC. Energy City of City W. P.R. No. 19180 10/22/15 jt ort rth U r Texas INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM WATER UTILITIES DEPARTMENT-ADMINISTRATION DIV. Date: October 22, 2015 To: Brian McDougal, City Manager From: Jimmie Johnson,Ph.D., Director of Utility Operations RE: Proposed Resolution No. 19180 Nature of the Request: The City awarded a contract to Siemens to provide services for the following projects: 1) Reduction of water loss through the identification and repair of hydrant leaks. 2) Large meter replacements, and 3) Automatic metering system upgrades. Siemens has submitted Change order No. 1 for a time extension of 90 days, due to delays, to a new contract completion date of February 5, 2016. StaffAnalysis, Considerations: Existing staff will monitor the contractor's performance. Recommendation: I recommend that the City Council approve Proposed Resolution No. 19180 authorizing the City Manager to execute Change Order No. 1 to the contract between the City of Port Arthur and Siemens Industry, Inc., of Houston, Texas for time extension of 90 days, due to delays listed in Exhibit"A"to a new contract completion date of February 5, 2016. Budget Considerations: None. P. R. No. 19180 10/22/15jt RESOLUTION NO. A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 TO THE CONTRACT FOR PHASE III OF A PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF PORT ARTHUR AND SIEMENS INDUSTRY, INC., BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES DIVISION FOR TIME EXTENSION OF 90 DAYS, DUE TO DELAYS, TO A NEW CONTRACT TERM OF 450 CALENDAR DAYS WITH A NEW CONTRACT COMPLETION DATE OF FEBRUARY 05, 2016. WHEREAS, pursuant to Resolution Numbers 12-147, authorizing the original Performance Contract Phase I for energy improvement and upgrades with Siemens; and, WHEREAS, pursuant to Resolution Numbers 13-393, authorizing a Performance Contract Phase II for the Police Department's HVAC improvement and upgrades with Siemens; and, WHEREAS, pursuant to Resolution Numbers 14-406, authorizing a Performance Contract Phase III specifically addressing the City's water infrastructure and upgrades with Siemens Industry, Inc.; and, WHEREAS, Siemens Industry, Inc. recommends proposed Change Order No. 1 for a time extension of 90 days, attached as Exhibit"A", to accomplish this work. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT ARTHUR: THAT, the City Manager of the City of Port Arthur is hereby authorized and directed to execute, on behalf of the City of Port Arthur, Change Order No. 1 (attached as Exhibit "A") to the contract between the City of Port Arthur and Siemens Industry, Inc., of Houston, Texas, increasing the total contract time by ninety (90) days due to delays; and, THAT, Change Order No. 1 increases the contract time to a new completion date of February 05, 2016; and, THAT, Change Order No. 1 will require no additional funding; and, P. R. No. 19180 10/22/15jt Page 2 THAT a copy of the caption of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the City Council. READ, ADOPTED AND APPROVED THIS day of , 2015 at a Regular Meeting of the City Council of the City of Port Arthur, Texas, by the following vote: AYES: Mayor , Councilmembers: NOES: Debris Prince Mayor ATTEST: APPROVED FOR ADMINISTRATION: Sherri Bellard Brian McDougal City Secretary City Manager P. R. No. 19180 10/22/15 jt Page 3 of 3 APPROVED AS TO FORM: )10 Valecia Ti no Clifton Williams, CPPB City Attorney Acting Purchasing Manager Dr. Jimmie Johnson, PhD Director of Utility Operations APPROVED AS TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS: t+• !mac , eel.uP,'g,l/- Jerry Dale, CPA, GFOA Interim Director of Finance Exhibit "A" (Siemens Change Order No. 1) SIEMENS July 28, 2015 Brian McDougal City of Port Arthur 444 4th Street Port Arthur, Texas 77641 Mr. McDougal Change Order 1: Contract amendment to extend the contractual completion date from November 7th, 2015 to February 5th, 2016. Due to circumstances outlined below, Siemens is requesting to amend section 2.1 of Exhibit A in contract provided in resolution No. 14-406 executed between Siemens Industry Inc. and The City of Port Arthur to extend the contract additional ninety days. Proposed changes to Exhibit A section 2.1: Exhibit A 2.1 Commencement of Work: SIEMENS shall commence the Work sixty (60) Calendar days from the Effective Contract Date, shall perform the Work diligently, and shall complete the Work no later than 369 450 calendar days from the day of Commencement. Issues encountered resulting in delays in project schedule: 1.) In the current contract, the City was to provide electrical power to the repeaters. However, after the contract was executed, the City asked Siemens to assist help facilitate with supplying the power to the repeaters and Siemens agreed to help. While attempting to coordinate the locations and installation of the electrical power for the repeaters, Siemens encountered numerous issues that delayed execution of this portion of the project. City personnel provided Siemens with their appropriate contact at Entergy and on December 16th, 2014 made contact with Entergy. Siemens began negotiations with the City's' representative from Entergy in an effort to coordinate installation of repeaters on street lights leased by the City from Entergy. Siemens had communications with Entergy and on January 7th, 2015 provided information on the repeater sites and needed requirements. Per Entergy's request, Siemens supplied further information on January 22st, 2015. On January 26th, 2015, Siemens received communications that their request would be presented to Entergy's legal department. Siemens Siemens Industry,Inc—Building Technologies Division Phone:(832)492-9110 8850 Fallbrook Road Fax:(281)949-3100 Houston,Texas 77064 Page 1 of 5 SIEMENS attempted to set up a meeting with Entergy on January 21st, 2015 to discuss the matter, but Entergy did not offer any dates to meet. Siemens again contacted Entergy on February 4th, 2015 to obtain an update regarding a decision, concerning the matter, but Entergy was not able to provide any information regarding this. Siemens attempt to try and negotiate an agreement with Entergy ended unsuccessfully. Siemens eventually determined that this course of action would not result in any form of resolution and after a meeting between Siemens, City of Port Arthur, and Entergy on February 25th, 2015 all parties decided not to engage in this option. Therefore, Siemens and the City decided to install new utility poles and provide new service in all locations needed for repeaters. Since Entergy does not provide pricing structures for minimum monthly billings anymore, they informed Siemens and the City that they would require an electrical meter at each location. To satisfy city staff request and F.E.M.A. guidelines regarding new electrical service, Siemens had to retain an outside engineering firm to review all locations and provide certificates of elevation for each location prior to installing any poles. These new certificates took another 8 weeks to research and deliver to the City. These delays have inhibited installation of the infrastructure needed for the AMI network. 2.) In Exhibit A of the contract, Siemens provided a list of repeater locations to the City. However, after the contract was signed, City staff wanted to further review that list and asked that changes be made to various locations of repeaters. On February 26th, 2015, Siemens provided City personnel with spreadsheets and a map with planned locations of the repeater poles for the city to review per there requested changes. Siemens later provided the documentation expanded to include more information, as per requested by City staff, to further assist in getting approval for these repeater sites. In an effort to further assist the City in resolving several conflicts that were identified by city staff, Siemens contracted with an outside firm to provide further assistance for the city. However, no direction was provided to resolve these conflicts and review of these sites are still unresolved. It is imperative that these issues be resolved in the next two weeks or the City can expect additional delays. 3.) One of the key milestones for the project to remain on schedule was the need for the City to sign an Indirect Sales Agreement between Itron Inc. and The City of Port Arthur for software license. This agreement was essential in getting the software approved so that the Itron AMI infrastructure could be set up to begin reading the meters. This document was delivered to the City in November 2014 Siemens Industry,Inc—Building Technologies Division Phone:(832)492-9110 8850 Fallbrook Road Fax (281)949-3100 Houston,Texas 77064 Page 2 of 5 SIEMENS and discussed in detail at the project kickoff meeting. Additionally Siemens provided copies of the agreement on Jaunary20th, 2015, February 26th, 2015 and March 1 lth, 2015. A meeting with Valecia Tizeno was held on April 7th, 2015 and May 5th, 2015 to review the document and make necessary modifications. Siemens expected to have the document signed and returned no later than early January 2015. After numerous requests to get this document signed, this agreement was finally approved by city council on May 12th, 2015 and returned to Itron on May 21st, 2015. The Itron MVRS system was set up on June 1st, 2015 to begin collecting data. 4.) Starting replacement of the 18,706 radio transmitters was dependant on the AMI network system being operational. This would allow the meters being replaced to immediately report usage once they were changed out and programmed. Due to the delays affecting the AMI network system becoming operational, the actual date the radio replacements began had slipped 3 months past its established start date and did not begin until May 12, 2015. 5.) Once the meter replacements started, our installers have encountered extensive vegetation growth, and in some cases debris, in the easements between houses. The vegetation growth has impacted the installers by inhibiting their ability to locate the meters and reducing access into the easements thereby slowing down their rates of production. We have asked City staff to assist us with requesting the Cities residence to remove debris and maintain foliage in the easements, but there has been no resolution to address this matter. Siemens has also requested assistance from the city in locating meters but,the City informed Siemens on June 9th, 2015 they were unable to support the locates due to issues with the availability of manpower. With the list of un-located meters continuing to grow, installers will have to return to these areas to complete these routes once the listed items are addressed. Another ongoing issue that has impacted the installers' progress is an inconsistency in the radio ID numbers at accounts that differ from what is in the database provided to Siemens for the project. Each instance these variations are encountered results in the account to be skipped and returned to later or the installers remaining at the account until the discrepancy can be addressed with the billing department. This issue was discussed in a meeting held on June 9th, 2015 and Siemens made a request that the city provide an updated database to help synchronize some of the mismatches in the radio numbers. The billing department did try to provide access to the current database file, but Siemens Industry,Inc—Building Technologies Division Phone:(832)492-9110 8850 Fallbrook Road Fax:(281)949-3100 Houston,Texas 77064 Page 3 of 5 SIEMENS encountered access issues to which they requested that the Cities IT department provide the file or access to it. To this date,July 21St 2015 the file has not been produced. Until the updated refresh file is provided, it was decided that each instance would have to be resolved through coordination between the cities' billing department and Siemens installation coordinator as every inconsistency is encountered causing further delays in production. 6.) On March 31st, 2015, it was established that the Fire Hydrant replacements would begin on April 27th, 2015 and a schedule of hydrants was provided. A discussion was held on April 21St, 2015 to assure that water mains were being identified according to the provided schedule, so that the installation crews would not have to wait for the water utility personnel to find the main valves and shut them off. During this discussion Siemens was informed that there would be a shortage of manpower during the week of April 27th, and the city would not be able to support the fire hydrant replacements. The start date was then rescheduled to start on May 4th, 2015. Siemens' installing contractor mobilized on the rescheduled start date and experienced difficulties starting the scheduled replacements for that day due to issues with city personnel identifying and isolating the main water lines. Two fire hydrants were scheduled for replacement that first day but the installing crews were only able to replace one hydrant. The following day, (May 5th, 2015)during the weekly meeting, it was discussed with the water utility department personnel that water main isolation valves would need to be identified and tested the previous week of the scheduled replacements so not to impede the installing crews. Additionally hydrants scheduled for the following week would have to be submitted to 811 for locates of the underground utilities at each location. The utility company's contractor allows ten locate request be submitted at a time and this limited re-arranging the schedules because of faulty main water valves which contributed to the need to have main valves identified previous to the scheduled day of replacements. It was also stated that the afternoon water utility crews would turn mains back on if the replacements went past four o'clock in the afternoon. During this meeting it was also determined that the cities blackboard system for notifications be utilized to inform customers of all water outages. Due to continuous problems with city main isolation valves being identified and shut off, only eight fire hydrants had been replaced by May 19th, 2015. The expectation was to perform two hydrant replacements per day and was what was being scheduled. On June 2nd,2015, during the weekly meeting,the city discussed that they were receiving a tremendous amount of calls due to water utility outages and that the need to schedule blackboard notifications and posting on the cities Siemens Industry,Inc—Building Technologies Division Phone:(832)492-9110 8850 Fallbrook Road Fax (281)949-3100 Houston,Texas 77064 Page 4 of 5 SIEMENS web site was needed to better inform customers of the outages. Through the month of June and July the installing crew has experienced issues of starting replacements later than needed while waiting for city crews to get water shut off so that the hydrant replacements could begin. The resulting effect would delay starting the next hydrant scheduled for that day and the hydrant replacement would be cancelled by city water utility personnel,due to the consideration of the amount of time the work would take and the later start time. The weekly meeting on July 14th,2015 established that the installation crews would wait no longer than one and one half hours for the main water lines to be isolated off, before moving to the next hydrant. There have been several occasions when work was canceled for a particular day due to water utility personnel absences. The weekly production rates have increased but still fall short of the expected weekly numbers causing the scheduled completion date for fire hydrants to be extended. Siemens is committed to completing this project as scheduled and has increased its manpower to improve the rate of production to compensate for the delays.However, due to the issues described above we will not be hitting the targeted completion date and are asking for a contract extension. Should you have any questions,please give me a call and we look forward to hearing back from you next week. Sincerely, Brian McDougal City of Port Arthur City Manager (Signature) Date Siemens Industry,Inc. (Signature) Date Siemens Industry,Inc—Building Technologies Division Phone:(832)492-9110 8850 Fallbrook Road Fax:(281)949-3100 Houston,Texas 77064 Page 5 of 5