The City of Sugar Land owns and operates 134 wastewater lift stations throughout the City. These lift stations are a critical part of transporting wastewater from our commercial areas and residents' homes to one of the City’s four wastewater treatment plants. The City’s service level for lift stations is based on an adopted 25-year useful life for the majority of the assets within each lift station. The City’s annual Capital Improvement Program (CIP) includes funding to proactively rehabilitate a number of these lift stations in order to maintain the current service level. 

To help prioritize the annual CIP investment, the City conducts routine inspections and assessments of the wastewater lift stations and develops a list of those lift stations in need of rehabilitation through the Asset Management Program. In FY20, the following lift stations were recommended for rehabilitation:

• Auburn Trails - No. 401
• Baybridge - No. 28
• Commonwealth - No. 30
• Elkins -No.24 

All four lift stations require major rehabilitation in order to avoid further deterioration. Proactive rehabilitation of these assets will reduce the likelihood of future failure and offset the higher reactive repair costs. These improvements also improve service levels to include compliance with electrical codes, improved efficiency, provide Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) ready system, and improved safety of operational staff. 

The design contract for the recommended rehabilitation was approved by City Council in February 2020, and the design was completed in September 2020. The rehabilitation project scope of work includes the following tasks:

• Valve vault modifications / pump installation
• Riser and header piping installation
• Electrical improvements to include SCADA connectivity
• Wetwell recoating / By-pass pumping / Start-Up Testing
• Other necessary miscellaneous improvements

In order to work within the project budget, the project was packaged into a base bid that consisted of three (3) lift stations plus one (1) alternate bid as shown below:

• Auburn Trails - No. 401    (Base bid)
• Baybridge - No. 28           (Base bid)
• Commonwealth - No.30   (Base bid)
• Elkins - No.24                  (Add-alternative bid)

An Invitation to Bid was advertised on September 23 and September 30, 2020. Three bids were received and opened on Thursday, October 15, 2020. One of the bids was deemed non-responsive (N/R) because the bidder did not provide a financial document that is required as part of the bid submittal. 

A bid summary of the responsive bids is shown below:

The lowest responsible bidder for the base bid items is Matula & Matula Construction Inc, in the amount of $1,340,710.00. 

The available budget for construction, contingency and construction administration in FY20 for CIP CWW2002 is $1,463,000.00. Due to budget constraints, City staff recommends proceeding with the base bid items only. With the base bid items of $1,340,710.00, 5% contingency, and an estimated construction phase administration cost of $24,800.00, the total project cost will be approximately $1,432,545.50. 

Sander Engineering Corporation (Design Engineer) completed a review and evaluation, and provided a letter of recommendation indicating Matula & Matula Construction Inc. is capable of completing a project of this nature. Matula & Matula Construction Inc. previously completed the City's Lift Station Rehabilitation project CIP WW1201 and are currently working on the City Lift Station Rehabilitation project  CIP WW1902. The Notice to Proceed will be issued in November 2020 with a contract time of 270 calendar days.

In accordance with Policy CO-0110, Notification of Construction Impacts and Service Interruptions, the Lift Station Rehabilitation project is classified as a Neighborhood Project located on City property and inside fences. No service interruptions are anticipated. Staff will provide notification via door hangars, mail outs, and one-on-one communications as needed.

The Engineering and Public Works Departments recommend that the City Council authorize the execution of a construction contract with Matula & Matula Construction Inc. for the rehabilitation of the Lift Stations at Auburn Trails (No. 401), Baybridge (No. 28), and Commonwealth (No.30), CIP CWW2002 in the amount of $1,340,710.00.