Staff recommends that the City Council approve the Professional Services Contract with Cushing Terrell for W.O. 23-45: Street and Traffic Remote Salt Storage Building, in the amount of $109,500.

The City of Billings Public Works Street and Traffic Division proposes to build a new building at the existing City owned site located off of Airport Road, just east of the newly built NorthWestern Energy substation.  The building is intended to provide covered storage and distribution of sand and salt materials used on streets and roads during winter conditions, and used for storage of uniform paving material and chips for pothole repair during all months of the year.  The facility will include a small breakroom and restroom.  The ability to store materials at this location will double the resiliency for how long staff can provide salt material on roads in the winter during longer or cumulative storm events.  There have been times in the past where staff ran low on salt materials, and it was unable to be delivered in a timely manner from Wyoming and Utah.  

Currently, the breakroom and restroom facilities used by Public Works staff are located at the Billings Operations Center (BOC).  A single location breakroom and restroom is inefficient and inconvenient for both summer and winter work in the Heights and the northeast areas of the city due to driving back and forth to the BOC during the work day. This facility will reduce unnecessary travel time and increase productivity.

This project consists of performing professional engineering and architectural evaluation, design, bidding services, and construction contract administration services (including part-time inspection).  The scope of work also includes Project Management and coordination of materials testing, which will be contracted separately.  

The City requested proposals for professional services from seven prequalified firms; the list derived from the established Statement of Qualifications.  Three proposals were received from Collaborative Design Architects (CDA), Cushing Terrell, and A&E Architects.  CDA was initially selected for the project using the proposal process, based on Project Team and Availability, Project Approach, and Firm Qualifications and Experience related to the project needs.  Staff and CDA were unable to agree on a scope of work and fee, and it was mutually agreed that an acceptable scope of work and fee could not be reached given the project budget.  Staff then negotiated a scope of work and fee with Cushing Terrell resulting in this contract being presented for Council approval.

City Council may:

• Approve award of a Professional Services Contract to Cushing Terrell; or,
• Not approve a contract with Cushing Terrell. If this agreement is not approved, this work will be delayed, resulting in less efficient summer and winter road work.

The contract is in the amount of $109,500 and is being funded with Street Maintenance District funds appropriated in the FY24 budget.  There are adequate funds available for this contract.  Remaining funds will be used for construction.