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Construction contract approved for RMWD lift station replacement

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Two actions taken at the Oct. 26 Rainbow Municipal Water District board meeting addressed the construction of the replacement for Lift Station No. 1.

The board approved a $15,181,157 construction contract with James W. Fowler Company and a $1,423,717 professional services agreement with Valley Construction Management for construction management and inspection services. Both actions had 4-0 votes with one vacant seat.

"We're excited to get started on the work," said Rainbow General Manager Tom Kennedy. "It's an important project for us. It's been many years in the making."

Lift Station No. 1 is off of Old River Road and delivers sewage effluent to the City of Oceanside, which has an ocean outfall. The package lift station has three five-horsepower wet well/dry well pumps and a 750 gallon working volume wet well. The pump station was built in 1974, and the pumps were replaced in 1994.

The lift station's firm capacity is 1,250 gallons per minute. During wet weather flows, the station pumps an average of 1,400 gpm by running pumps up to 13 times per hour. Additional development is expected to increase the necessary lift station volume, and the ultimate required capacity is more than 2,600 gpm. The lift station is also in need of structural, electrical, and mechanical repair. Rainbow's 2000 master plan identified the need for the eventual replacement of Lift Station No. 1 and adjacent pipelines.

In March 2014, Rainbow's board approved a contract with Kennedy/Jenks Consultants (Tom Kennedy is not related to the principal with the Kennedy/Jenks consulting firm) to provide design, environmental permitting, and construction oversight services for the replacement of Lift Station No. 1. Kennedy/Jenks submitted a pre-design report which summarized the required improvements.

The report stated that upsizing the existing sewer siphon to accommodate the predicted ultimate flows would require a new siphon to be drilled horizontally under the San Luis Rey River with a depth of approximately 80 feet in order to avoid bedrock. A new lift station on the north side of the river would avoid the need for a deep siphon and, after a 1.36-acre site on Thoroughbred Lane adjacent to Bonsall Village Center became available, Rainbow's board approved the purchase of that property in February 2017.

The initial design was re-evaluated and it was determined that upsizing a stretch of sewer main along State Route 76 and placing an equalization basin upstream of the existing siphon could level out the flows through the siphon to meet existing capacity requirements for Lift Station No. 1. Moving the flow equalization upstream would also allow the new Schoolhouse Lift Station at Old River Road and Calle De Las Estrellas to replace Lift Station No. 1 without upsizing the line to the Old River Lift Station. The equalization basin will be constructed near Thoroughbred Road and Highway 76.

When the planned Citro development was called Meadowood, Dexter Wilson analyzed Rainbow's existing wastewater conveyance system to determine what facilities would be needed to accommodate Meadowood's sewer discharge requirements. The needs included the Thoroughbred Lift Station and appurtenant pipeline modifications, a force main from the Thoroughbred Lift Station to Old River Road, upsizing the existing sewer line along Highway 76, and a gravity main from Olive Hill Road to the Thoroughbred Lift Station. The analysis also projected needed improvements to wastewater facilities along North River Road and to gravity sewer mains along Old River Road.

Some of the improvements recommended by Dexter Wilson were included in draft scenarios prepared by Kennedy/Jenks but never completed. In December 2020, the Rainbow board approved a change order to the Kennedy/Jenks contract for the design of the Thoroughbred Lift Station, the force main, the upsized sewer line along Highway 76, and the gravity main along with the necessary documentation for California Department of Transportation permitting and an environmental Mitigated Negative Declaration.

Rainbow's board voted 5-0 Jan. 26 to approve the environmental analysis prepared by Kennedy/Jenks. The motion also formally approved the project which was already in the district's five-year capital plan, although the approval of the project did not include the approval of any designs or other plans nor did it authorize a construction contract or appropriate any funding.

The environmental documentation also covers the force main from the Thoroughbred Lift Station to Old River Road, upsizing the existing sewer line along Highway 76, and the gravity main from Olive Hill Road to the Thoroughbred Lift Station.

After the final design of the lift station, force main, upsized sewer line, and gravity main was completed and a Caltrans encroachment permit was issued, Rainbow staff advertised a request for qualifications. Eight companies responded by the Sept. 13 deadline, and seven were considered qualified. The bid package itself was released Sept. 20, and five bids were received by the Oct. 21 deadline.

James W. Fowler Company, which is headquartered in the Oregon town of Dallas, had the low bid of $15,181,157. TC Construction of Santee submitted the second-lowest bid at $16,712,000. SCW Contracting, which is in the town of Rainbow, submitted a bid of $17,161,710 which was the third-lowest amount. The engineer's estimate was $16,674,000.

The Valley Construction Management office is in San Diego. "Having a dedicated full-time construction manager and inspector will be a great assistance to the district," said acting district engineer Chad Williams.

Professional services contracts are awarded based on proposal rankings rather than on the lowest cost. The five firms which responded by the Sept. 20 deadline were ranked on project experience, project management and team qualifications, and approach to the work. Valley Construction Management had the highest-ranked proposal although the $1,490,745 fee in their proposal wasn't the lowest of the five.

Rainbow and Valley Construction staff negotiated a 5% reduction in the fee to $1,423,717. The 28-month contract includes one month for the pre-bid services, 24 months for the expected construction duration, and three months of post-construction services for the closeout period.

 

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