In an effort for the City of North Miami Beach (“City”) to continue providing Excellent Municipal Services through NMB Water, in a financially responsible manner to the water service within the City, Aventura, Miami Gardens, Sunny Isles, Golden Beach and parts of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, and consistent with our Strategic Plan, the City issued Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”) RFQ-21-025 - Design-Build Services For Norwood-Oeffler Water Treatment Plant.
The Mayor and City Commission approved Resolution No.2021-107 on October 19, 2021, accepting the ranking of the three qualified firms and authorizing to City Manager to negotiate with highest ranking firm PCL Construction Inc. and, if the negotiations were successful, present an agreement for the City Commission’s consideration and approval.
The City Manager established a Negotiation Committee comprised of the NMB Water Director, City’s Chief of Staff, City’s Finance Director, CIP Program Manager, and CIP Construction Manager.
The project will be delivered by the Progressive Design-Build at a Budget method in which the design and construction function is provided by one single entity in collaboration with the City as the Owner, utilizing an established budget for the completion of the Norwood-Oeffler Water Treatment Plant Improvements. NMB Water will be responsible of the management of the selected Progressive Design-Builder including schedule management, progress reporting, workshop attendance, budget management, and approvals of invoices.
The original Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was constructed in 1945 with a typical lime softening (LS) treatment process and a treatment capacity of 1.5 MGD. In 1965, the LS WTP was expanded to 6 MGD by adding clarifiers, three more filters and a 2 MG finished water storage tank. Seven years later (1972) the LS WTP was again expanded to 17.5 MGD by adding another clarifier, additional filters, and a 2 MG finished water storage tank. In July 2017, several rehabilitation and upgrade projects were completed including an upgrade of the nanofiltration and reverse osmosis treatment processes, increasing the treatment capacity to 41 MGD. Since original construction, the LS WTP has only been expanded but never rehabilitated, considering its history and length of service, the current maintenance expenses, the repair and upgrade of the LS WTP is warranted and was included as part of the Capital Improvement Program (CIP).
As part of the CIP, improvements to the WTP were identified with a total of ten (10) priority work items to be included in the Scope of Services as identified in Table 1. These 10 priority work items are the basis of the Project Criteria.
As typical with Progressive Design-Build, the Contract will be managed with a phased approach:
- Preliminary Phase Services: Will be utilized to further develop the Project Criteria and determine the basis of design to achieve the goals of the project.
- Phase 1: Will perform all design, pricing, and scheduling
- Phase 2: Utilizing the design from Phase 1, will establish the Guaranteed Maximum Price for the priority work items to procure all the material, equipment and construction services. This phase also includes start-up, testing, and commissioning services.
Each phase will be defined and priced separately. Prior to commencing any work, NMB Water and the Design-Builder must have agreed to the scope and cost and then a POs will be issued. Because the City has decided to use the Progressive Design-Build at a Budget delivery method for this project, the priority work items and scope of services will be modified to stay within the approved $34,400,000. If additional funding is identified, a Contract Amendment will be prepared and presented to the City Commission for review and approval.