A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ACCEPTING THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY MANAGER TO AWARD AN AGREEMENT, PURSUANT TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NO. 2018-001-KB, FOR WATER, SANITARY, STORM AND STREET LIGHT UTILITY LOCATING SERVICES TO THE TOP RANKED PROPOSER, USIC LOCATING SERVICES, LLC; AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH USIC LOCATING SERVICES, LLC, SUBJECT TO AND CONTINGENT UPON AN APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS, AT THE CITY COMMISSION'S SOLE DISCRETION.

Adopt the Resolution.

The City requires the services of firms to perform water, sanitary, storm and street light utility locating services for the Public Works Department. Rather than address the need for these services as the projects come up, the Administration believes that a more strategic approach, by contracting for services prior to the actual need being identified, is in the City's best interest. In order to consider a contract for these services, the City has requested proposals from qualified, experienced, and professional organizations to provide utility location marking services for the City of Miami Beach's underground and subaqueous utilities located within the City’s service area and municipal boundaries.  Interested organizations must have extensive experience with the Florida Sunshine One Call System, provide sufficient qualified staff, equipment and supplies to perform the duties of the contract as described in the bid documents. The submitting organizations were encouraged to examine the work location in order to fully inform themselves as to the conditions present throughout the service area and municipal boundaries. The ability to have a list of firms to be contacted on an as needed basis would enable the City to utilize these services when the need arises.

RFP PROCESS

On May 16, 2018, the Mayor and City Commission authorized the issuance of Request for Proposals (RFP) 2018-001-KB for water, sanitary, storm and street light utility locating services.  The Procurement Department issued solicitation notices to 387 firms utilizing publicpurchase.com.  186 prospective proposers accessed the advertised solicitation.  RFP responses were due and received on July 30, 2018. The City received proposals from the following four (4) firms: Craig A. Smith & Associates, Inc., High Tech Engineering, Inc., USIC Locating Services, LLC, and Venegroup Engineering.

The Evaluation Committee appointed by the City Manager pursuant to LTC# 492-2018 convened on September 19, 2018, to consider the responsive proposals received.  The Committee was comprised of Michael Atkin, Superintendent – Greenspace, Public Works Department, City of Miami Beach; Brian Bellino, Surveyor Manager, Public Works Department, City of Miami Beach; Carla Dixon, Capital Projects Coordinator, Capital Improvement Projects, City of Miami Beach; Desir Lys, Water Field Operations Supervisor, Public Works Department, City of Miami Beach.

The Committee was provided an overview of the project, information relative to the City’s Cone of Silence Ordinance and the Government Sunshine Law. The Committee was also provided with general information on the scope of services and a copy of each proposal.  The Committee was instructed to score and rank each proposal pursuant to the evaluation criteria established in the RFP. The evaluation process resulted in the ranking of proposers as indicated in Attachment A. A brief description of each proposer, as provided in their response to the RFP, follows:

USIC Locating Services, LLC

The following are success factors when outsourcing with USIC:

• As America’s leading provider of locating services, USIC has earned the reputation for

superior quality and performance;

• “Safety First” is one of USIC’s most important fundamentals, with a focus on new and better ways to be both safe and productive.
• USIC offers the leading edge locating technology tools and larger coverage in the industry.
• USIC is already visiting 100% of every locate with in the Miami Beach Footprint.

With USIC’s technology and training program our approach is to make sure all technicians fully understand the infrastructure before executing the project. 96 Locate Technicians are assigned to the District that covers the geography of Miami Beach and they respond to 98% of all tickets on-time.

USIC fully understands the scope of work. Receiving all tickets from Sunshine811, routing and dispatching a Locating Technician to respond in accordance with all Chapter 556 responsibilities, identifying excavation to be performed and to paint and flag all in-conflict city utilities. To log locates and provide data back to the city and Sunshine811.

Craig A. Smith & Associates, Inc.

Craig A. Smith & Associates (CAS) is a client-oriented firm tailored to serving the needs of private & governmental clients. We currently service numerous cities, counties, utility authorities and large private entities. CAS is highly experienced and qualified to perform consulting services with respect to Subsurface Utility Locating and Surveying Services Craig A. Smith and Associates (CAS) is a Florida Corporation licensed for the practice of professional engineering, surveying and utility locates. The Corporate office is located in Boca

Raton, Florida. We also have satellite offices located in Broward County and Miami-Dade County.

CAS is committed to providing its clients cost effective timely broad-based, comprehensive, high-quality professional services in the practice of engineering, surveying and utility locating services. This commitment to excellence is achieved through the development of a team spirit of service to clients. CES prides itself in its ability to tailor its services to meet its clients' needs. CES is proud of its past history of successful projects. This success is a result of its highly experienced staff members who have created a cohesive team ensuring projects are completed in a timely and cost effective manner.

Venegroup Engineering

For utility surveys, Venegroup Eng uses both Ground Penetrating Radar and Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) — two very complementary technologies. Venegroup Eng uses a mid-range frequency GPR system to scan for utilities; Venegroup Eng also uses an EMI-based SeekTech Ridgid Line locator. This equipment is the only line locator that uses omni-directional antennas, guidance arrows and an easy-to-read mapping display to lead you quickly and accurately to the target line, so you can have our scanning result in real time.

The equipment that Venegroup Eng uses for its utility locating services is extremely accurate. In order to provide the most comprehensive and accurate utilities survey, Venegroup Eng's utility locating services work through the use of electromagnetic induction technology in conjunction with ground penetrating radar (GPR). Venegroup Eng uses hand-held electromagnetic induction equipment consisting of a base unit and a wand to locate metallic pipes, live electrical currents, or signals from live communications wires.

High Tech Engineering, Inc.

High Tech Locating has more than 22 years, exclusively dedicated to Underground Utility Locating and Damage Prevention Services. Our areas of expertise include the location of water systems, the location of sewer systems, the location of street light systems, which makes us a powerful choice for this contract. High Tech Locating is a Florida corporation with headquarters located in Miami, Florida. High Tech Locating is closely familiar with the City of Miami Beach area. High Tech Locating currently locates underground infrastructure within the City limits.

After reviewing all the submissions and the results of the evaluation process, and noting that the Evaluation Committee unanimously gave top rank scores to USIC Locating Services, I concur with the Evaluation Committee that USIC Locating Services,  has provided the best overall combination of qualifications and cost. Some of the highlights of USIC Locating Services as articulated by the Evaluation Committee, include:

• USIC Locating Services has extensive knowledge of the industry, as well as significant experience working within the City of Miami Beach.
• The firm provides after hours response and has individuals on call if required by the City.
• The firm have an extensive equipment inventory able to meet the needs of the City.

In addition to its exceptional experience, USIC Locating Services submitted the lowest overall cost of $141,840.00.

Therefore, based on the best overall combination of experience and cost, I recommend that the Mayor and City Commission approve the Resolution authorizing the Administration to award USIC Locating Services, LLC, pursuant to Request for Proposals (RFP) 2018-001-KB for water, sanitary, storm and street light utility locating services, to USIC Locating Services, LLC, subject to funds availability approved through the City’s budgeting process; and further authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute an agreement with USIC Locating Services, LLC.

The costs of the related services are subject to funds availability approved through the City’s budgeting process.  Grant funding will not be utilized for this project.