The County Administration Building at 651 Pine Street was built in the early 1960’s and has exceeded its useful life. The current building, which houses the County Administrator’s Office, County Counsel’s Office, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Sheriff’s Administration, Internal Affairs and Recruitment is out of date for a modern work environment. The floors in the tower portion of the building are small and cause departments to be broken up among two or three floors. The current EOC is housed in a former fleet maintenance building. The linear layout is not ideal for emergency operations. There is approximately $25 million dollars in deferred maintenance on the two facilities.
The County has been looking to replace these two facilities off and on for the past 30 years. The project began in earnest in May, 2016 with an effort to identify sites and conceptual designs for the two buildings. On February 7, 2017, the Board approved a downtown Martinez site for the new Administration Building, and to site the new EOC/Public Safety building directly west of the existing EOC near the intersection of Glacier and Muir Drives in Martinez. At the same meeting, the Board authorized the Public Works Director to undertake a two-step Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP) process to solicit design-build contractors to design and build the new Administration Building and new EOC.
County’s design consultant, RossDrulisCusenbery Architecture, Inc. prepared conceptual design level documents for the new EOC, and design consultants KMD Architects prepared the same for the new Administration Building. The Design-Build procurement process began in October, 2017, and the prequalification process was completed in November, 2017. The project RFP was issued on December 8, 2017. Final proposals were received by the County on January 25, 2018 and the “best value” evaluation was completed as described below in the Requests for Proposal / Selection Process Section below.
Request for Qualifications (RFQ):
The Public Works Department released the RFQ on October 2, 2017. The RFQ release was communicated to known contractors, including those in the Local Vendor Database, advertised in the Daily Builder and published in the Contra Costa Times. It was posted to the PWD Plan Room which is accessed via link on the Contra Costa County website under the Contracting Opportunities page. A Pre-RFQ conference for all interested vendors was held on October 12, 2017.
The RFQ required that a design-build team describe their outreach efforts to include minority business enterprises, woman-owned business enterprises, and small, local, disabled veterans, and other business enterprises as part of their subcontractors. The RFQ also required the design-build teams to provide references from past projects. Specific questions included: quality of personnel and supervision, adherence to project schedule and budget, timely payment to subcontractors and suppliers, and adequacy of equipment.
The County received responses from two Design-Build Entities, Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and Swinerton Builders. The County Administrator’s Office, in coordination with Public Works Department staff and Vanir Construction Management, Inc. reviewed the information submitted and determined that both firms met or exceeded the RFQ qualifications requirements.
Request for Proposals / Selection Process:
On January 25, 2018 the Public Works Department received proposals from Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and Swinerton Builders. A five person selection committee consisting of Chief Assistant County Administrators Eric Angstadt and Tim Ewell, Undersheriff Mike Casten, Capital Projects Division Manager Ramesh Kanzaria and Ron Mastalski, Project Manager with Vanir Construction Management. Both proposals were competitive and the selection committee met with each proposing group multiple times.
On February 2, 2018, the County issued a Request for Supplemental Information (RSI) to the two Design-Build entities. The purpose of the RSI was to obtain additional information necessary for the County to determine whether the proposals were responsive, balanced and without defect. Responses to the RSI were submitted on February 9, 2018.
Upon submission of the information requested in the RSI, the County completed the proposal evaluation process. The selection committee evaluated the two proposals based on several criteria as outlined in the RFP Bridging Manual for Design/Build Services, Document 002100 (Request for Proposals from Bidders), Section 20 (Evaluation Factors), attached to this board order.
In summary, the best value proposal evaluation process included two categories of factors: (1) the Evaluation Factor Categories evaluated on a “favorable / unfavorable” basis as follows:
A. Green Building Criteria/LEED-NC Silver or Higher
B. Skilled Labor and Safety Record
C. Schedule Compliance - a realistic plan to achieve the Project completion date
and (2) points Evaluation Factor Categories with points assigned as follows:
- Subconsultant/Subcontractor Outreach – (10 available points)
- Bridging Documents Conformance – (20 available points)
- Design & Construction Qualifications – (25 available points)
- Best Value Enhancements – (20 available points)
- Interview / presentation questions – (25 available points)
An additional 10 points was available to bidders if all three “favorable / unfavorable” factors were scored as “favorable.” Each member of the selection team independently filled out a scoring sheet for each proposal with a maximum of 110 points available. The scores from each panel member were added together giving a total score for each proposal with a maximum of 550 points. As described in the RFP, “The qualifying Bidder with the maximum points will be recommended for the award of the Contract.”
The results of the scoring process were Hensel Phelps was the highest rated proposal with 487.25 points, and Swinerton was second with 457.25 points. Based on their highest scoring proposal, the selection committee recommends Hensel Phelps Construction Co. as the best value for Contra Costa County citizens.
The contractor will be required to enter into a Project Labor Agreement in connection with the services to be performed under the contract.
Project Features
One of the advantages of using a Design Build method of procurement is that the designs can continue to evolve which allows additional improvements and value to the County as we move forward with the project.
For the Administration Building the following major additions and improvements are part of the proposed contract:
LEED Gold rating
Building raised five feet to provide extra protection from flooding and sea level rise
Interior grand staircase
For the EOC/Public Safety Building the following major additions and improvements are part of the proposed contract:
LEED Gold rating
Revised lecture hall architecture to improve the entry of the facility
Increased landscape/hardscape to create an arrival plaza off Glacier Drive
Improvements to existing EOC to allow reuse by Sheriff’s Department including an armory
Both buildings have many other smaller improvements and additions and we expect to improve the design as we move forward into construction. With the new solar arrays the Board of Supervisors approved for the parking lot behind 651 Pine Street, both buildings are close to being Zero Net Energy facilities. Zero Net Energy buildings generate as much energy as they consume in a given year. As we move forward with the project we will look for additional energy savings in the design, as well as additional generating opportunities, to see if we can close the remaining gap for each building.
Not approving the contract would the construction of two needed facilities potentially increasing the cost to construct them in the future.