In 2016, the Public Works Department completed an Intelligent Meter Conversion Feasibility Study. In addition, Public Works also completed an annual Water Loss Audit. Both documents are used to identify a number of ways the City can improve water accountability.
One of the recommendations is to continue a proactive water meter replacement program. The audit estimates the City is losing 117 million gallons of water each year because of meter inaccuracies. This loss is responsible for approximately $684,000 in lost revenue. The AMI feasibility study confirmed that proactive meter replacement would not directly impact long-term AMI decisions.
Public Works submitted a Key Issue to address this problem as part of the FY18 budget cycle. The Key Issue highlighted a 10-year replacement cycle for all meters 1 inch (1”) and smaller. The request was approved in the FY18 budget and the City has been replacing meters through a similar contract for the past two years. To date the City has replaced over 7,000 meters throughout the city in order to improve meter efficiency and address water loss.
Currently, the City has a total of 36,700 meters that are 1” and smaller within the main City, River Park, Greatwood and New Territory service areas. To achieve the recommended replacement cycle, the City needs to replace 3,670 each year.
An Invitation to Bid (ITB) for the replacement of 3,670 meters 5/8" - 1" was advertised on October 21, 2020, and included cost for replacing broken meter boxes and curb stops.
The ITB only included the labor to complete the replacement (base fee). The contractor will purchase the materials (meters, meter boxes, and curb stops), at unit costs already in place for the City. The City competitively bids material unit costs for water meters along with all other materials used for operations and maintenance. This structure is in the best interest of the City as it allows the City to utilize an already competitively bid price for the materials and control overall cost of the program.
On November 5, 2020, the City received and opened four bids with UWS, Inc. being the apparent low bidder.
UWS has not worked for the City but references were verified and they have completed similar meter replacement contracts all across the country. All references checked came back positive for UWS. Staff has met with UWS to review their replacement procedures and we are confident the replacements can be completed without any impact to the customers and their billing cycle.
The Public Works Department recommends the approval of a contract with UWS, Inc. for meter replacement in the amount of $378,831.00, consisting of a base fee of $147,570.70 for meter replacement, and material costs (meters, meter boxes, and curb stops) estimated at $231,260.30. The initial contract term is for one year and the City has the option to renew the contract for up to four (4) one-year extensions. This contract will automatically renew for four additional one-year terms, for a total contract cost of $1,894,155.00 +/- an annual CPI adjustment.