The City owns over 260 sanitary sewer lift station pumps ranging from 2 to 115 horsepower, and over 50 pumps at the surface water and groundwater facilities ranging from 10 to 200 horsepower. Based on the historical average, the Water Utilities Division repairs, or replaces approximately 10% of the pumps each year.
As part of the budgeted maintenance program, the Water Utilities Division utilizes on-call repair contracts for major pump and motor repairs. Items such as motor rewinds, new bearings, replacement seals, balancing, machining, and emergency repairs, that require specialized equipment and skills beyond the expertise of our personnel.
The existing five year pump and motor repair service contracts expires in August 2020. However, a portion of this contract was re-bid early to cover the increase in pump repairs.
In early May, the City advertised the Invitation To Bid (ITB# 2019-20) for on-call pump and motor repair services, and on Thursday, May 16th, 2019, the bids were opened. The bid document addressed various types of repairs and services for various sizes of pumps. The proposal included standard prices for each pump in inventory to include cost to tear down and inspect; provide written failure report, including cost of labor and materials to repair; and pickup and delivery. All repairs are to be completed within Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) standards. Standard repairs are as follows:
- Motor Rewind with written Megohm test, seal replacement, all o-rings, new bearing(s) and balance, re-potting cable leads or new cable grommet and other incidentals (gaskets, oil, grease, coolant) to make operable, with one year warranty. All repair parts are to be OEM parts.
- Motor Recondition with written Megohm test, seal replacement, all o-rings, new bearing (s) and balance, re-potting cable leads or new cable grommet and other incidentals (gaskets, oil, grease, coolant) to make operable, with one year warranty. All repair parts to be OEM parts.
- All repaired pumps and motors will be blasted, primed and painted upon completion of repair.
- Repairs over and above the standard repair will have to be authorized and negotiated before work is to begin.
Bids were received from two vendors: North Side Electric Motors and Electric Motor Specialists, Inc. The successful bid was submitted by Electric Motor Specialists. Staff visited the Electric Motor Specialists shop and called references. Staff is confident Electric Motor Specialists will meet the Division's high quality expectations.
After reviewing the bids, the Public Works Department recommends awarding the on-call repairs contract to Water Utilities pumps to Electric Motor Specialists. The annual contract with Electric Motor Specialists is for $200,000. This amount is estimated from past expenditures and the anticipated number of repairs to be made in the coming years. It also includes additional funds to provide capacity for emergency repairs should the need arise.
The renewable contract is structured as a five year agreement, which includes the original term plus four additional automatic renewals each fiscal year. Language in the contract allows the City to terminate the contract between years should future funding not be approved for any reason
The contract is a unit price contract that enables the Division to use services only on an as needed basis.
Funding for this contract is available through the Public Works - Operations & Maintenance budgets. The budget for these repairs is $240,000. The contracts are awarded as blanket purchase orders, so money is only spent when services are required.
The Public Works Department recommends that the City Council approve a contract with Electric Motor Specialists, Inc., for lift station and other pump repairs in the amount of $200,000, with automatic renewals for four additional years for a 5 year contract of $1,000,000.