CHARLES COUNTY GOVERNMENT ITB NO NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) SHORELINE STABILIZATION AT BENEDICT COMMUNITY PARK

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1 CHARLES COUNTY GOVERNMENT Department of Fiscal and Administrative Services Purchasing Division Telephone: September 1, 2017 ITB NO NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) SHORELINE STABILIZATION AT BENEDICT COMMUNITY PARK ADDENDUM NUMBER ONE TO: All Bidders Please be advised of the following modification(s) & information related to Invitation to Bid (ITB) These modifications, comments, and attachments are hereby made a part of the solicitation documents to the same extent as if bound therein. The due dates for questions and bids remains the same, as stated in the solicitation. 1. Changes ITB Solicitation Document A. Part I Instructions to Bidders, Section Other Add the following to the list as item h to be submitted with the Bid Package: h. Copy of State of Maryland Marine Contractors License B. Part I Instructions to Bidders, Section 4.4 Insurance Delete the text within the Section in its entirety and replace with the bold, italicized text: The Contractor shall provide, at his expense, commercial automobile bodily injury and property damage insurance covering all vehicles whether owned, hired, or non-owned operated by/or on behalf of the Contractor in the performance of this contract, and any other insurance applicable as deemed necessary by the County. Below are the minimum units: Bodily Injury: $1,000,000 per person $2,000,000 per occurrence Property Damage: $500,000 per occurrence Contractor shall also obtain and pay premium for the following: Workmen s Compensation in compliance with Maryland Statutory Limit. Page 1 of 6

2 Commercial General Liability including pollution coverage in an amount not less than $2,000,000 (combined personal injury and/or property damage) per occurrence subject to $3,000,000 aggregate. Environmental Insurance policy including pollution and use of chemicals in an amount not less than $2,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 annual aggregate. If property insurance requires deductibles, the Contractor shall pay cost not covered because of such deductibles. The successful Bidder shall provide the County with Certificates of Insurance evidencing the coverage required above. Such certificates shall name County Commissioners of Charles County as an additional named insured, referencing the solicitation name and number. Successful Bidder must provide Certificates of Insurance prior to final execution of the Contract. The providing of any insurance required herein does not relieve the successful Bidder of any of the responsibilities or obligations assumed by the Bidder in the contract awarded or for which the bidder may be liable by law or otherwise. 2. Pre-Bid Meeting Notes A. Introduction Good morning, and welcome to the optional pre-bid meeting for ITB 18-12, NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) SHORELINE STABILIZATION AT BENEDICT COMMUNITY PARK. My name is Amanda Willis, Senior Procurement Specialist of Purchasing for Charles County Government. Also with us today are representatives from the Department of Public Works (DPW), Capital Services Division, and the Consultant. Introductions: Art Swann, Program Manager; Cameron Neal, Project Manager, and John Heinrichs. No information obtained from any source other than the Solicitation documents found on the County Bid Board, FTP site, department representatives (during this meeting), or myself may be considered to be accurate. B. Procurement Discussion All solicitation documents may be found on the County Bid Board & FTP site. Ensure all required forms and any other information required is complete and in your bid packages. Submit 1 unbound original, so identified, and 2 bound copies of your complete Bid package. All questions should be directed to me in writing via the contact information provided in the ITB. Bids shall be valid for minimum of 120 days from the bid due date. There is an aspirational 25% MBE goal for this solicitation. We encourage you to meet that goal. This solicitation is subject to the County s Small, Local Business Program as indicated in the ITB. The selected Contractor shall complete the scope of work and all requirements contained in the ITB within 180 consecutive calendar days after the start date to be specified in a written Notice to Proceed issued by the County. Insurance requirements are located on page I-11. Page 2 of 6

3 A bid security and bonds are required for this project as specified in the ITB. The protest policy may be found on page I-8 and I-9. Award will be to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder based upon the Total Bid Price provided it is in the County s best interest to do so. The County may reject any and all bids for any reason it deems necessary, and may waive any irregularities and/or informalities, and make award in any manner that is in the best interest of the County. By submitting a bid in response to this solicitation, the Bidder certifies that their firm is not debarred, suspended, or otherwise ineligible for participation in government procurement by the federal government, the State of Maryland, or any other state, county or municipal government. C. Technical Discussion This project is for the Benedict Shoreline Restoration Stabilization. Cameron Neal will be the project manager. This project is located off of Route 231. We do have a state access permit to get to the job site. The first step is to eliminate all of the Phragmites in the work area. We are looking to start this project as soon as possible since the Phragmites elimination would need to happen before the first frost. There is a time restriction of year (TOYR) for this project from February 15 th to April 30 th. The State Highway Administration states that a sign(s) for trucks entering the highway will be required. Since MDE likes to see a 50/50 low marsh and high marsh with living shoreline projects, there is going to be some excavation on the far end away from the bridge to get down low enough to create some lower marsh. The Phragmites root mat will have to go to an approved dumpsite. The Contractor will be responsible for the three (3) year maintenance on the Phragmites eradication. MDE has called part of the Phragmites marsh as non-tidal which is why the Contractor will need to use construction mats through the non-tidal portion. Wood chips are not allowed to be used for a temporary road in the non-tidal area. D. Optional Pre-Bid Meeting Questions # Question Response 1 Is the access going to be a guarantee or are we going to need to access it in another way? 2 Is Charles County the approved dump site? 3 Are all of the wood chips coming out at the end of the project? E. Optional Pre-Bid Meeting Conclusion The County has been granted a State Highway access permit which allows the contractor to access the project from Route 231. Initial Response: An answer will be provided in an upcoming addendum. Further Clarification: The Phragmites can be taken to the Charles County Recycling Center located on Piney Church Road. Prior to dumping at any of the County facilities the Contractor will need to obtain a waiver. Obtaining the waiver will be coordinated through the Department of Public Works staff. Yes, any wood chips applied to the temporary road will need to be removed from the site when the work is complete. Page 3 of 6

4 This concludes the meeting. Thank you for attending, and good luck. Copies of the attendance roster will be posted on the County Bid Board this afternoon. 3. Written Questions Received as of 8/31/2017 # Question Response Pertaining to Part I, Section 1.17, Negotiations: Could you clarify and define the terms of the contract that will be negotiated by the County? Will the County be asking for a best and final price at the negotiation table? If the County chooses to negotiate with another bidder in the event an agreement cannot be reached, will the previous bidder be aggrieved and therefore eligible to protest per the procedure outlined in the solicitation? It does not appear that any effort was made to determine the subsurface conditions of the project site. At another recent Charles County pre-bid for a similar project, the engineer indicated that the bottom was probed with a grade rod with a bottom plate attached. This is not an acceptable means of determining subsurface conditions. The County is proposing to place lb. armor stone in an area adjacent to an actively eroding phragmites wetland. As is the case in most wetland areas, the subsurface conditions will likely include very soft organic clays and fine silts just below the visible sand layer along the shoreline, which may not adequately support the weight of armor stone without some level of settlement. The County is bidding this project lump sum, which places the burden of determining the extent of potential settlement of the structure upon the contractor, whom was not contracted to design the structure. Please clarify how potential structure settlement will be addressed by the County during project construction and how the contractor is to address this potential significant increase in material quantity and cost in their bid. As a follow up to the above question, will the County accept each structure as complete once it is built, or is the contractor responsible for maintaining the final grade of all structures until substantial completion of the entire project? The County is unable to predict which contract terms may be negotiated, if any. The County is seeking bids in response to the solicitation. Refer to Part I, Instructions to Bidders for the County s Protest Policy. An adequate soils investigation was performed which included hand augers and soil sampling as well as the surface probes. More than one foot of settlement is expected during construction, as indicated on the design sections. Typical to many shoreline projects, the Contractor shall anticipate that settlement will occur during construction and account for this settlement in his bid. Contractor will be responsible for maintaining the final grade of all structures until substantial completion of the entire project. Contractor will not be responsible for any settlement post substantial completion or during the warranty period. Page 4 of 6

5 The County is requesting a plant guarantee of 2 years. Presumably, the contractor is responsible for damage or loss associated with disease or unhealthy plant material which is dead and in place during the guarantee period. The contractor should not be responsible for plant loss attributable to incorrect design elevations or insufficient levels of protection, storm damage, predation, or other causes resulting in loss (removal) of plant material from the planted area. In addition, the presence of existing phragmites wetland will almost certainly overtake portions of the new wetland in the first year of growth to what extent is the contractor expected to remove and/or control the phragmites during this 2 year guarantee period? Please clarify. The sequence of construction states that the contractor is to construct the stone sills completely prior to placement of the sand fill and also that the contractor is to begin at the south end of the project and work towards the north end, leaving the haul road and equipment exposed throughout the process. As noted in comments above, this will result in significant disturbance to the potentially soft wetland bottom as the contractor attempts to access the nearshore area for stone placement, even with the use of mats and wood chips which may sink into soft organic soils and/or float away. Typically, sand and stone are placed as the contractor progresses from the access point (north end) to the completion of the project (south end), resulting in significantly less disturbance to the environment. The sequence should be revised accordingly; please confirm. Typical cross sections 1-6 show excavation of 1 to 2 feet of bottom material with placement of large armor stone directly over geotextile. Since the contractor is very likely to encounter soft organic soils adjacent to the existing wetland, placement of large armor stone will result in tearing of the filter cloth unless bedding stone is used to cushion the armor layer as it is placed over the geotextile and soft bottom. Please clarify how the County will address structure settlement and tearing of geotextile in the presence of soft organic soils based on the current design. A significant amount if not all of the excavated material below the stone structures will likely be soft organic material. May the contractor beneficially re-use this material under the proposed sand fill layer as long as it does not contain phragmites, or must it be hauled off site and disposed? The specifications clearly describe the warranty periods, (Part III, 2.13 Additional Guarantee and Part III, Plant Warranty Period of the ITB). Once the planting and goose protective fencing have been installed and accepted by the County, the Contractor is not responsible for plant loss due to incorrect design elevations, storm damage, vandalism, or other causes beyond his reasonable control. The Contractor is responsible for regular documented maintenance of the plants and protective fencing during the warranty period. Any plant losses during this period must be documented and reported as soon as the Contractor becomes aware of them. We have no objection to a revision in the Sequence of Construction; however, it must be approved by the Soil Conservation District. This can be addressed after bids are received. Please see response to Written Questions Received #3 and #4 (of this addendum) addressing structure settlement. The Contractor is to provide adequate precaution to prevent damage to the geotextile filter fabric. See Part III, Section Construction, C. Geotextile Filter Fabric of the ITB. All fill material placed behind the stone sill structures must be in compliance with Part III, Section Material of the ITB. Page 5 of 6

6 10 The proposed wood chip access road will not support the weight of heavy construction equipment, off-highway trucks or highway trucks over soft wet organic soils. As a result, the wood chips will be pushed into the wetland making removal nearly impossible and resulting in a significant disturbance to the environment. May the contractor utilize sand fill and mats in lieu of the woodchips? 11 Do you have a quantities take off for this project? Yes, the Contractor may utilize sand fill and mats in lieu of wood chips. The Contractor is responsible for determining his own quantities for lump sum bids Will there be any sand added behind the MHW mark where the frags to be eradicated? Do you have a list of contractors you use for minority projects? See cross-sections on construction plans for limits of sand fill. The County maintains a list of registered Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) firms. Please refer to Part I, Section 3.1 Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Program of the ITB. ***END OF ADDENDUM*** Page 6 of 6