Procurement Notice: Stormwater Engineering Services, New Bedford waterfront

Last update: January 15, 2010

BBNEP Awards Stormwater Plan Contract to Fuss & O’Neill

In partnership with the City of New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, the Buzzards Bay NEP awarded a $16,500 contract to the firm Fuss & O’Neill for the creation of a stormwater plan for the city-owned piers along the New Bedford Harbor waterfront specified in this RFR. The contract was awarded in December 2009 and commenced in January 2010. The Review Committee recommendations will be posted on Comm-Pass and are available at this link: env09czm13-newbedford-storm-rfr-web.pdf.

Professional design services for Stormwater Treatment Plans for New Bedford, MA waterfront

In partnership with the City of New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, and as part of our 2009 municipal grant program, the Buzzards Bay NEP sought engineering services to assist the City in creating a stormwater plan of all surfaces including publicly owned piers and wharfs, buildings, adjacent public ways, and private properties within a selected portion of the New Bedford Harbor Waterfront. On October 15, the RFR was amended to raise the total available from $15,000 to $16,600 because of additional municipal grant funds that became available. This page was established to increase awareness of this initiative, and in support of the posting of a Request for Responses (RFR) on the CommBuys website.

Status: RFR Closed

Designs completed, and in 2011 the city anticipates applying for a CZM CPR grant funding to construct the stormwater treatment systems.

The BBNEP, through Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management, issued an RFR for engineering services on September 18, 2009. The RFR is posted at the CommBuys website (click the “Solicitations” tab, and then search open solicitations for “New Bedford”). The RFR and other documents are also posted on this web page. The RFR for this project closed October 20, 2009. Seven proposals were received and the respondents are listed below in alphabetical order:

Baxter Nye Engineering & Surveying of Hyannis, MA
Coastal Engineering Company of Orleans, MA
Fuss & O’Neill of Providence, RI
Norfolk Ram of Plymouth, MA
Peter Environmental Consulting & P.M.P. Associates, LLC of Newburyport, MA
Prime Engineering of Lakeville, MA
Tighe & Bond of Pocasset, MA

Overview

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), through the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program (NEP) in the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), announces the availability of $15,000 in federal funds to hire an engineering or environmental service firm. The selected firm will identify and map existing stormwater infrastructure, including but not limited to discharges and conveyance structures or mechanisms within the primary study area. The selected firm will also develop a proposed future conditions plan including stormwater best management practices (BMPs) for the primary study area, and also a long-term schedule for effective and efficient implementation of the plan by the City of New Bedford and the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission (NBHDC). As part of the plan, the selected vendor will also provide the NBHDC with an operations and maintenance (O&M) guide that will direct the city on operational measures that may contribute to reductions in overall pollutant loads carried by stormwater from the study area. The O&M guide will also provide the NBHDC with recommendations on short-term and long-term maintenance measures needed to keep proposed BMPs at peak performance levels. Proponents may choose to include Fisherman’s Wharf, as shown on the map of the study area (See Attachment A in the RFR and map below) and labeled “optional secondary study area,” as an optional part of their proposal. However, no additional funding is available at this time to perform the work for this optional secondary study area.

RFR SCHEDULE

A. RELEASE OF RFR: September 18, 2009

B. INFORMATION SESSION:A Bidder’s Conference will be held at 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 in the parking lot of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission’s waterfront office at 106 Co-Op Wharf (aka Fishermans Wharf), New Bedford, MA (WARNING: This address does not appear correctly in Google maps. Use this link instead: Google Maps).

C. INQUIRIES ABOUT THE RFR: The Municipal Grants Coordinator will accept questions about this RFR in writing (by mail, fax, or email) through 4 PM, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

D. APPLICATION DUE DATE: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by 4:00 PM

E. ESTIMATED AWARD DATE: November 15, 2009

F. ESTIMATED CONTRACT START DATE: The estimated contract start date is December 1, 2009. The vendor must complete all work by June 30, 2010.

To view our solicitation and to download the forms, go to www.commbuys.com/bso/. Click the “Solicitations” tab, then the “Search for Solicitations” link. On the search page type “New Bedford” on the keyword line, click on “x documents found”, and this RFR should be the third open rfr on the list. Click on this link. (Sorry there is no hard link, this is a dynamic link website.) You can also find it by “Browse All Open Solicitations”, Click on “By Entity/Department”, and Scroll down the list of departments until you see “Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.” Then click on the box with a check in it. It will come to the top of the screen and you will need to click the checked box a second time.

Once you find the RFR (ENV09 CZM13) click on the eyeglasses icon under “View.” On the next page click on the “Specifications” tab, and then on the eyeglasses icon again. Please make sure you check the information contained under the other tabs as well, especially the “Forms & Terms” tab.

To save you time, we will post here copies of the RFR (opening in their own browser window) as a MS Word document (you can type responses into the appropriate sections of the document), or as a view-only pdf file. If you need additional Commonwealth forms, use the COMMPASS website link above.

Download the Engineering Services RFR ENV 09 CZM 13 as a 3.9 MB pdf file
Download the Engineering Services RFR ENV 09 CZM 13 as a 4.0 MB Microsoft Word document.

 

Questions Received and Responses

It is important that vendors review the 2008 ENV Supplemental Terms and Conditions document posted with our RFR on the Comm-Pass Website. Please note that you are prohibited from contacting anyone in the Buzzards Bay NEP office with specific questions about this RFR. Other data or information may be requested from the town or staff of the Buzzards Bay Program as per their normal duties in responding to data and map requests from the public.

The questions and responses below are tentative until final posting on Comm-Pass.

Question 1: Was any new information presented at the bidder’s conference that materially changed the scope of the work?
Response to Question 1: No. However, these statements were made about the overall priorities and goals of the planned work:
In summary, there are three products the vendor must prepare: 1)a site plan that shows both existing conditions (especially elevations and stormwater flow paths), including elements relevant to stormwater treatment (like the locations of utilities), and the location of any recommended BMPs, 2) a plan that will describe the overall stormwater management strategies and goals, remediation priorities, and steps that the city should undertake to implement the recommended strategies 3) an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) guide for proposed structural and nonstructural Best Management Practices (BMP) to reduce pollutant loads from current and future stormwater discharges. In some respects, the product will be analogous to a Phase II NPDES stormwater plan. The vendor is essentially preparing a long-term road map that identifies additional information that the city and New Bedford Harbor Development Commission (HDC) must collect, identifies short-term fixes, and describes management practices (structural and non-structural BMPS) that will contribute to stormwater pollution reduction. Any proposed strategies must conform to the new DEP stormwater treatment guidance, and also meet city goals about reducing hydrocarbon pollution associated with stormwater discharges.

Question 2: Is a site survey required?
Response to Question 2: The Buzzards Bay NEP considers an elevation site survey essential to determine stormwater runoff flow paths and contributing areas. Elevations/locations of pipe inverts, catch basins, infrastructure, etc. are considered necessary to ensure the proposed stormwater BMPs are implementable and likely to function as desired. In addition, adequate elevation information is needed to assess the amount of stormwater flowing directly (sheet flow, volumes not collected within the stormdrain system) into the harbor.

Question 3: Have the available plans of the project site’s infrastructure been collected and located in one place.
Response to Question 3: The Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program has been working with the city to collect all the available stormwater drainage plans. The information from these plans is presented on the Study Area Map included in the RFR and handed out at the bidder’s conference. However, its accuracy is highly questionable and therefore should be field verified (for example, many catch basins and discharge pipes were evident at the site visit that were not included on these plans). The HDC has recently received a conditions survey of all its piers and wharfs that may be somewhat useful. These pier reports are posted on the Buzzards Bay NEP’s web site at: [this page].

Question 4: State Pier is between Fisherman’s Wharf and Central Waterfront – South, why isn’t it included within this RFR?
Response to Question 4: The State Pier is owned and operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and will be going through some site alterations in the future. Planned alterations include improvements to stormdrain system BMPs. For more information on the proposed BMPs at the other pier, contact either:
– Rick Cunio, the day to day pier manager, Office location is at the State Pier, phone number is 508-993-1646. or
– Kevin Mooney , the coordinator of the State Pier infrastructure improvement project, phone number 781-740-1600×103.

Question 5: Is dye testing a potential option for identifying which catch basins are connected to which stormwater outfalls?
Response to Question 5: Yes, this is one potential tool that could be used. The city’s Department of Public Infrastructure has expressed a willingness to work with the consultant to help facilitate the placement and flushing of dye through various portions of the system for help identify flow paths and connections. However, this work would need to be coordinated and under the direction of the selected consultant. Any pre-approvals and coordination necessary with state or federal agencies would be the responsibility of the contractor. Contact Ron Labelle or Vinnie Furtado at the New Bedford Department of Public Infrastructure (508.979.1550).

Question 6: What type of easement or right of way is associated with the railroad tracks along the west edge of the project site?
Response to Question 6: The railroad tracks are owned by the Commonwealth or another party, and may be placed in service at a later date. Therefore, the rail layout likely is not a possible site for stormwater treatment, but the vendor could make recommendations about stormwater management from adjacent projects.

Question 7: How should the off-site contributing drainage be handled?
Response to Question 7: The purpose of this project is to address the stormwater runoff generated from the project site. The long-term management plan of the Central Waterfront, however, may include suggestions to the City regarding potential corrective actions to eliminate or reduce the amount of off-site drainage.

Question 8: What is the HDC currently doing to reduce pollutants (trash, hydrocarbons, paint) within the stormdrain system?
Response to Question 8: The HDC may be contacted with respect to their pollution reduction program.

Question 9: Should stormwater flow from building roofs and other non-stormwater drainage from inside the buildings be included in the planning documents?
Response to Question 9: Yes, both stormwater and non-stormwater flows from buildings that contribute to stormwater flows or quality, must be included in the planning document. In addition, the type of non-stormwater flow must be identified (floor drain, waste product, etc.).