Agenda

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City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

06/01/2021

BACKGROUND

In 2016 the City undertook an effort to inspect all of the city streets to develop a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score for each street. The PCI scores were then used to develop the City’s Street Preservation and Maintenance (SPAM) program. Work has progressed and some preservation and maintenance projects have been completed.

A given street’s PCI score, while a good tool to use for prioritizing pavement preservation projects, also represents a “snapshot in time” of the street’s actual condition. Additional street inspections should be done at regular intervals to update each street’s PCI scores. By routinely updating the PCI scores, the City can get a better understanding of the current, actual conditions of a street to better prioritize pavement preservation efforts as time goes on. A typical PCI update interval for most pavement preservation programs is four to five years. As a result, it is time to update the PCI scores in the City of Schertz. Updating the PCI scores was including in the 5-year SPAM CIP that was previously reviewed and approved by Council.

There are different ways to collect the pavement condition data to generate a PCI score for each street. The methods range from manually inspecting each street and manually entering in data to create a new PCI score to fully automated data collection. The benefits of fully automated data collection are time savings, reduction of data entry error potential, and the removal of potential personal input/bias from the data versus manual data collection.

The proposed professional services contract provides for automated data collection for all of the City streets. The consultant will use specialized vans with high-resolution cameras and other equipment to drive each traffic lane on each street in the City. While driving each lane, the equipment collects data over the entire surface of the driving lane automatically. The collected data is double-checked by technicians to verify its accuracy. The checked data can then be uploaded directly into PAVER, the City’s pavement management software, generating new PCI scores for each street.

Additionally, the camera and some of the other equipment in the data collection van is also able to collect traffic sign data while also collecting pavement data. The proposed contract also includes collection of the traffic sign data, which will help Public Works quantify and track traffic signs throughout the city, assisting them with their sign maintenance efforts.

The PCI data collection services are fairly specialized and none of our on-call firms are currently able to provide them. Normally, we would go through a specific Request For Qualifications (RFQ) process to identify and select a “most qualified” firm to contract with for these services. However, Fugro was selected through the Texas SHARE Buy Board RFQ process to provide these professional PCI data collection services across the state of Texas. By relying on this selection process we were able to bypass having to do our own RFQ process and were able to negotiate a scope and fee proposal with Fugro for these services.

GOAL

To obtain authorization from City Council to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Fugro to provide professional engineering-related services for $117,480.00 and to authorize a not to exceed amount of $140,000.00 for the PCI Data Update Project.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

Updating the PCI scores for all the streets will allow staff to update the 5-year SPAM CIP using more current data. The additional data also increases the accuracy of PAVER’s (the pavement management software) pavement deterioration curves for the City’s streets. These curves can be used to help predict streets future PCI scores to help “adjust” the PCI scores in between detailed data collection efforts.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

Approval of Resolution 21-R-49 authorizing a Professional Services Contract with Fugro for a not to exceed amount of $140,000 for the PCI Data Update Project.

FISCAL IMPACT

Funding for the proposed increase for the construction contract is available from excess General Fund Reserves earmarked for streets.

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends approval of Resolution 21-R-49, authorizing a Professional Services Contract with Fugfro for a not to exceed amount of $140,000 for the PCI Data Update Project.

Attachments
Resolution 21-R-49
Exhibit A (Fugro Contract)