Adopt Resolution 15-06-145 Approving Plans and Specifications and Authorizing Advertisements for Bids for 2015 Street Maintenance Program Division A, Sealcoat Improvements; Improvement Project #15-00

Purpose:
The purpose of this case is to approve plans and specifications and authorize advertisements for bids for Division A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program, sealcoating improvements.

Background:
As part of the city's long-term Street Maintenance Program, various city streets receive cracksealing and sealcoating improvements each year to help maximize the life expectancy of street pavement sections.  The purpose of this case is to request Council acceptance of plans and specifications and authorization to advertise for bids for the 2015 Street Maintenance Program Division A, Sealcoat Improvements.
 
Cracksealing streets helps prevent stormwater runoff from seeping through cracks in the pavement and through joints between the pavement and concrete curb and gutter and/or utility castings, greatly reducing the potential for future pavement damage due to wet pavement subgrades. Sealcoating streets helps protect the pavement from the negative effects of stormwater runoff, the sun’s rays, and oil based by-products deposited on the surface of the pavement by vehicles using the street.

City staff has therefore prepared plans and specifications for the 2015 Street Maintenance Project which involves cracksealing and sealcoating approximately 12.8 miles of applicable municipal streets in various locations throughout the City.  Attached are Exhibits A through E showing the locations of all streets throughout the city to be improved under Divisions A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program.  Plans and specifications are not attached to this case but will be available for review at the Council meeting if needed.

Staff is proposing to bid two new pavement maintenance treatments this year as part of the Division A improvements.  First, staff proposes to bid a small area of the project using Traprock instead of more costly granite aggregate that has typically been used for sealcoating streets in Ramsey.  Several cities have started using Traprock so staff plans to evaluate the effectiveness of Traprock in one area as shown in Exhibit E.  Second, staff proposes to fog seal over several newly sealcoated streets to evaluate the benefits of applying fogsealing over sealcoating.  Numerous other cities have tried fogsealing over sealcoat applications in recent years and have observed benefits including that the pavement looks newer for longer after fogsealing is applied, plus the fogsealing locks the rock in better preventing the rock from making its way into garages, homes and businesses on tires and the bottoms of shoes. The streets proposed to receive fogsealing applications are shown in Exhibit C.
 
If Council approves plans and specifications and authorizes advertisements for bids for Division A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program, advertisements will be published in the Anoka Union Herald and in Finance and Commerce on June 12^th, 19^th, and 26^th, then bids will be opened on July 8^th.  Council will then be asked to accept bids and award a contract for construction on July 14^th. Work could then commence by the end of July, at the earliest.

Observations:
The streets identified for receiving improvements with Division A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program were selected by City staff based on various criteria including their Pavement and Surface Evaluation Rating (PASER), previous maintenance history, project scope, and other more intangible criteria.
 
Alternatives:
Alternative #1 - Motion adopting Resolution 15-06-145 approving Plans and Specifications and authorizing Advertisements for Bids for 2015 Street Maintenance Program Division A, Sealcoat Improvements; Improvement Project #15-00.

Alternative #2 - Motion denying adoption of Resolution 15-06-145 at this time.

The estimated cost for all improvements identified in Division A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program is $358,716.  This includes 18% indirect costs for engineering.  A total of $500,000 was budgeted for sealcoating work in 2015, leaving an estimated total of $141,284 unspent.  However, staff has identified other sealcoating related work that would be better suited for hiring contracted spray patching services in 2015 using any unspent funds, plus the proposed Division B overlay improvements of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program exceed the amount that was bonded for overlay projects.  Therefore, once bids are received for the Division A (sealcoat) and Division B (overlay) improvements staff will evaluate which funds should be spent where and will provide a recommendation for Council at the time bids are presented for approval of contracts on July 14^th.     
 
No assessments are proposed to fund any portion of Division A of the 2015 Street Maintenance Program.

Staff anticipates that bid prices will be favorable, though based on the time of year bids could come in higher than expected.  In any event, staff does not anticipate the need to remove any sealcoating segments from the proposed project.