Consider Change Orders for Parking Ramp Garage Project

Purpose
Consider authorizing multiple change orders for parking ramp garage project.

Background (project)
In summary, the proposed garage is located on the first floor, east side, of the Ramsey Municipal Parking Ramp and encloses 14 existing parking stalls.  The garage will provide heated space, with overhead door access, for the storage of building maintenance equipment, some public works equipment, some police equipment, City staff vehicles (engineering, admin, building, maintenance, etc.) and event supplies.  

This project is nearly 100% complete.  A certificate of occupancy is planned to be issued August 25.

Background (contracts)
The City of Ramsey hired LSA Design to complete architectural/ design/ management of the project.  During the course of this contract, LSA Design was bought out by SRF Consulting.  Therefore, SRF Consulting is the architect on this project, William Fossing is the principal.  Mr. Fossing will be in attendance at this meeting.

Construction Results Corporation of Plymouth, Minnesota was awarded a $303,440 contract for the construction of this project by the City on March 10, 2015.  As the Council may recall, the project was bid two times.  The engineer's estimate for this project was about $250,000. 

Background (change orders)
Attached is the change order #1 for this project--which includes seven items.  One of those items is a reimbursement back to the City of Ramsey.  Therefore, there is a net six change orders that require payment by the City of Ramsey.  All change orders total $6,433 for this project (or 2.1% of total project costs).  According to SRF, the percentage costs of change orders on this project is at or below at or below industry averages (typically 2-4%). 

It should be noted, the original project budget presented to the Council didn't include a "contingency" number.  In the future, Staff plans on including this number on all projects (about 5%).  In this particular circumstance, the contingency would be used for small change orders such as this.  If reasonable, said change orders would then be placed on the consent agenda for Council approval.  For example, the Council did approve a $200,000 contingency budget for the Fire Station #2 project, a $3.135M contract (6.3%).

 

NA

Please see attached documentation from SRF.

Facilities Fund.

Comments from SRF:
It is our opinion  that we have provided contract documents and construction administration services that comply with our agreement with the city regarding accuracy and completeness.

During the construction phase of the project the general contractor is required to provide and submit shop drawings plans and details for their work. During this process questions come up that the design team must evaluate and then determine whether or not the response constitutes a change to the contractors agreement with the city. Both contracts with the city address how to handle changes in the work as well as minor ambiguities.

We have had a reasonable number of requests for information on this project. The majority of these RFI's did not constitute a change to the contract. A few of them were determined to require a change order. The scope of the required changes were documented and the general contractor provided a requested change order amount that were determined to be fair and appropriate by the design team. We have packaged these change order requests into change order number one and are submitting it to the city for approval. The total change order amount for the project is close to 2% of the contract price. This is at or below industry standards for this type of work, especially if you compare it with remodel projects.
 
We appreciate the opportunity to work for the city of Ramsey and have worked hard to provide a high-quality product.

Thanks
Bill Fossing PE
Associate
SRF consulting

Staff Comments:
Staff did spend a considerable amount of time discussing and confirming the proposed change orders.  Staff feels based on the recommendation of SRF, and the City's contract with SRF, the proposed change orders are reasonable.  Staff would like to note, SRF/ the City, did reject several other change order requests (as they were not reasonable).

 

Approve the attached change order #1 for construction project #14-28.