That the City Council:
A. Approve and authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Iteris, Inc., of Santa Ana, California, in the amount of $1,299,974 to provide professional engineering services for the Euclid Street Regional Traffic Signal Synchronization Project; and

B. Authorize staff to issue a purchase order to Iteris, Inc., of Santa Ana, California, in the amount of $1,364,973, which includes a five percent (5%) contingency.

In an effort to streamline traffic flow through the local community and the county at large, staff applied for competitive grant funding in October 2021 through the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Combined Transportation Funding Programs under Project P - Regional Traffic Signal Synchronization Program (RTSSP).  The Program's goal is to improve traffic flow by coordinating traffic signals across city boundaries.  In 2022 OCTA approved an overall project budget of $5.8 million to design, construct, and implement the Euclid Street Corridor Regional Traffic Synchronization Project.  Funding has been approved and budgeted by OCTA and will be available to the City over the next three fiscal years (FY 2022-23 to FY 2025-26).  As the grant recipient, the City of La Habra will act as the lead agency for this project.  Other participating agencies in this project include the cities of Fullerton, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Fountain Valley.

The Euclid Street Corridor Regional Traffic Synchronization Project (Project) will synchronize traffic signals along Euclid Street from La Habra Boulevard in the City of La Habra to the I-405 SB Ramps in the City of Fountain Valley.  The approximate 16.9 mile long project includes 67 traffic signals and 69 offset traffic signals (those within 2,500 feet of Euclid Street) in the cities of La Habra, Fullerton, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Fountain Valley.  Along this corridor, six (6) traffic signals are maintained by the City of La Habra, thirteen (13) traffic signals are maintained by the City of Fullerton, fifteen (15) traffic signals are maintained by the City of Anaheim, eleven (11) traffic signals are maintained by the City of Garden Grove, five (5) traffic signals are maintained by the City of Santa Ana, nine (9) traffic signals are maintained by the City of Fountain Valley, and eight (8) traffic signals are maintained by the Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
 
In November 2022 staff developed and issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to seven (7) qualified consulting firms, of which five (5) submitted proposals.  A review committee comprised of engineers from the cities of La Habra, Garden Grove, and Anaheim evaluated and ranked those proposals in accordance with the guidelines identified in the RFP.  Based on a total possible score of 100 points, the review committee scored the proposals based on their responsiveness to the project specifications as identified in the RFP.  Selective criteria included but was not limited to: company references and experience; personnel staffing levels and experience (qualifications); proposal completeness (all required issues addressed); familiarity and experience with signal synchronization projects (including experience using traffic software such as: Syncho, Tru-Traffic, TranSync, Moonshadow Live Traffic, and/or other signal timing optimization software); familiarity and experience with traffic signal hardware, ITS equipment, and communication integration as identified in the RFP; familiarity and experience with Q-Free Kinetics Signals, Q-Free MaxView, Simens Tactics, Econolite Centracs, and TransCore TransSuite central systems; proposed schedule for completion of the primary implementation (PI) phase of the project; accessibility to the office of the consultant who has the primary responsibility assignment; and ongoing signal system operations & maintenance experience.

The review committee scored and ranked the five firms as follows:
 

As part of the selection process, the review committee recommended interviewing the top three scoring firms.  Following the interviews of the top three firms, the committee determined that Iteris, Inc. (Iteris) was deemed the most qualified firm to meet the Project's needs and timeline.  Iteris submitted a comprehensive proposal which included a detailed work plan, and assembled an excellent project team with extensive experience in traffic signal synchronization timing corridor projects. Additionally, the committee felt that Iteris possessed the best knowledge, skills, understanding and recent experience to successfully complete the Project.

California Government Code Section 4526-4529 requires that the selection of professional services “shall be on the basis of demonstrated competence and on the professional qualifications necessary for the satisfactory performance of the services required.”  Accordingly, staff negotiated the fee with the most qualified firm, which was determined to be Iteris.  Iteris' initial fee proposal was for $1,777,995, which consisted of $1,365,935 for the base proposal and $412,060 for completion of optional items outlined in the RFP.  Optional items that were listed in the RFP included the preparation of additional special signal timing plans. In an effort to reduce the total contract cost, staff elected not to proceed with optional services. Staff then successfully negotiated a reduction of $65,961, or 4.8%, from the initial base fee proposal, for a final proposed contract cost of $1,299,974.

Staff recommends that the City Council award a contract to Iteris and authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Iteris to provide professional engineering services for the Euclid Street Corridor Regional Traffic Synchronization Project. Letters of support from the participating agencies have been submitted for Council's Consideration (Attachment 1).

OCTA has approved an overall three-year project budget of $5.8 million for engineering design services, project management, signal timing development and implementation, signal timing support, construction, and ongoing operations & maintenance support for a period of two years after the completion of construction.  The OCTA Regional Traffic Signal Synchronization Program (RTSSP) requires that the participating local agencies contribute a local funding match of twenty percent (20%), with OCTA's grant funding covering eighty percent (80%) of the total Project budget.  Based on the approved three-year funding plan, the OCTA grant will cover $4.6 million of the total project funding, while the participating local agencies will be required to match $1.2 million of the Project's cost.
 
This Project will be implemented in three different phases which include: 1) Engineering, 2) Construction, and 3) ongoing Operations & Maintenance (O&M). Under this agreement, Iteris will be performing Phase 1 and Phase 3 of the project, which includes engineering, construction management services, and O&M.  Upon completion of Phase 1, the Project will be bid out to a qualified contractor to perform Phase 2, the actual construction portion of the project.  The Phase 3 O&M, following the completion of construction, will consist of monitoring the traffic signals along the corridor on a monthly basis for a two-year period to ensure that the implemented signal timing developed is operating properly and as designed. 

The Euclid Street Corridor Project is included in the City's adopted FY 2022-23 Capital Improvement Program with a budget of $116,143 to fund a portion of the engineering phase of the Project. The overall Project budget for all three Phases is $5,790,102. The cost of providing professional engineering services for the Euclid Street Corridor Project for the three-year period is $1,299,974.  The remaining balance of $4,490,128 will be available for construction costs.  As the lead agency, La Habra staff will be requesting a one-time lump sum initial payment from OCTA for up to 75 percent of the awarded contract amount to Iteris (approximately $779,985).  Staff anticipates that this initial payment will be provided by OCTA around June 2023 and thus this payment will help offset a portion of the upfront cost incurred by the City for this project. The remaining funding of approximately $4.8 million will be the responsibility of the City of La Habra to advance until completion of the Project, after which OCTA will provide a grant reimbursement of approximately $3.8 million, with the balance of approximately $1 million funded by the Participating Agencies as their local match contribution. The City has sufficient funds to pay for these project costs in advance of grant and local match reimbursements that will be made to the City at the conclusion of the Project's construction.

If this Project and agreement are approved by Council, the City will begin working on a separate cooperative agreement with the cities of Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Fountain Valley.  The cooperative agreement will define the roles and responsibilities for each local agency, including their shared costs, local match requirements, and reimbursement to the City of La Habra.  Additionally, the City of La Habra will also enter into a separate cooperative agreement with Caltrans for development and implementation of the signal timing for the Project at state-owned & operated intersections.

For reference, the following is the funding breakdown for the participating agencies:
 

Objective F - Maintain and upgrade the City's traffic signal system