Staff recommends the City Council award a contract for W.O. 19-12, West End Reservoir Shale Material Processing Pilot Study, to KLE Construction in the amount of $259,395.00.

W.O. 19-12, West End Reservoir Shale Material Processing Pilot Study supplies important geotechnical information to the future final design and construction of West End Reservoir project.  The intent of this project is to further determine the characteristics of the shale material located at the project site for use as an embankment material for the Reservoir project. Work under the direction of the HDR Engineering geotechnical engineer will generally consist of:

• site dewatering and routing of discharge for pumped water,
• removal and stockpile of overburden materials,
• ripping of the shale formation and breaking the shale material into a smaller size suitable for further compaction and testing,
• application of water to the crushed shale under direction of the geotechnical engineer,
• preparation of a test embankment foundation,
• placement and compaction of shale material, and
• assisting the Geotechnical engineer with extraction of lab samples from the shale embankment.

This project was advertised on August 7, August 14 and August 21 in the Yellowstone County News and on the City's website.  Bids were opened on August 25 and four bids were received.  KLE Construction submitted the lowest, responsible bid.

City Council may:

• Award W.O. 19-12 West End Reservoir Shale Material Processing Pilot Study to KLE Construction in the amount of $259,395, or;
• Do not award a contract and reject all bids.  If this project is not awarded, the City and HDR Engineering's geotechnical experts will not have sufficient technical information about the shale material present at the West End Reservoir site for use as embankment material.  The additional knowledge gained through this pilot study will contribute to a more accurate reservoir design and bidding documents for the West End Reservoir Project.  Providing higher quality information to designers and bidders will ultimately reduce overall project design and construction cost.

The following bids were received:
 

Contractor	Bid
KLE Construction, LLC	$259,395.00
Donnes, Inc.	$349,500.00
Asking Construction, LLC	$399,370.00
Dan Hart Patrol Service, LLC	$478,020.00

The pilot work related to the W.O. 19-12 West End Reservoir Project was included with the $4,966,000 of engineering budget available in FY21 for final reservoir design. The remaining budget will be used for engineering costs related to final project design.