To: Members of the Castle Rock Water Commission
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Shawn Griffith, Operations Manager
John Chrestensen, Field Services Superintendent
Title
Resolution Approving a Sole Source Services Agreement with DRC Construction, Inc. for the Castle Rock Water Acoustic Sewer Line Assessment Program [Entire Service Area for Castle Rock Water]
Town Council Agenda Date: May 3, 2022
Body
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Executive Summary
Castle Rock Water (CRW) Staff requests Town Council Approval of a Resolution approving a services agreement with DRC Construction, Inc., (Attachment A) to conduct RH Borden’s condition based acoustic sewer line assessment on the Town’s sewer main infrastructure. RH Borden’s condition based acoustic sewer line assessment technology is relatively new technology that allows a rapid and accurate assessment of the sewer main system. CRW sees the use of this technology as a cost effective way to catch up on sewer maintenance that needs to do done and that has suffered during the pandemic and as a result of staffing shortages. The service agreement with DRC Construction, Inc. will allow for a complete assessment of the Town’s entire sewer collection system in approximately 80 working days. The cost for this full assessment will not exceed $354,120. Completion of the assessment will allow CRW Staff to focus cleaning on lines that actually need to be cleaned or repaired.
Notification and Outreach Efforts
While there will be little to no impact to our customers, public outreach will be done. An informational article that discusses the program will be distributed in Your Town Talk. Social Media Posts will also be distributed as the project ensues.
Discussion
CRW’s Operations Field Service’s Collection team is responsible for inspecting and maintaining over 309 miles of sewer main and manholes. Maintenance goals for this team include cleaning (jetting) 103 miles of main and the associated manholes per year, which comprises 33% of the collection system per year. In addition, there is a maintenance goal of closed circuit television (CCTV) inspecting 62 miles of main, which comprises 20% of the collections system each year. These goals correspond to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Capacity Management Operation and Maintenance Programs at Sanitary Sewer Collection Systems (CMOM). In recent years, staff shortages have made these goals unattainable. In 2020, we jetted 69 miles and inspected 34 miles, and in 2021, we jetted 70.5 miles and inspected 26 miles.
The approximate cost to conduct jetting maintenance on one third of the system is $142,000 ($426,000 on the entire system). These time and area based inspection criteria do not properly address trouble spots in the collections system. Large amounts of treated water and fuel are used during the pursuit of cleaning goals. Rising diesel fuel costs will increase this year’s maintenance costs. Experience has shown that upwards of 75% of the lines cleaned annually, do not actually require cleaning; thereby, wasting time and resources that could be better utilized with a targeted approach.
RH Borden’s condition-based system, utilizes acoustic assessments to identify sewer system problems. This eliminates wasted resources by ensuring that the most problematic high-priority areas are identified, tracked and systematically scheduled for maintenance, repair or replacement. Their Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool (SL-RAT) utilizes a transmitter and a receiver, each inserted in consecutive manholes. The transmitter sends a tone down the pipe and the receiver analyzes the tones for degradation. Based on the quality of the sound, each pipe segment is given a blockage score of 1 to 10. Pipe segments scoring a 6 or above are flowing freely. Lower scores identify potential problems in the system, which can then be scheduled for maintenance, (see Attachment B).
On March 24th of this year DRC and RH Borden provided Castle Rock Water with a Pilot test of their services. During this pilot, 4,671 linear feet of collection line was inspected in roughly 1.5 hours. The area surveyed was in Founders Village and consisted of 36-year-old pipe. This pipe had not been cleaned in the past three years, but was scheduled to be cleaned in 2022. The surveyed pipe scored 7s, 8s and 9s, indicating that there were no blockages, and that cleaning was not needed. CRW staff then video inspected these pipelines to verify the results of the acoustic testing. The video inspections confirmed that all pipe segments were free of blockages and did not need to be cleaned.
This technology has been approved and recommended by CIRSA, (see Attachment C), and has been used in multiple municipalities throughout the nation with great success. We anticipate that sewer system overflows could be cut by two thirds and current cleaning costs reduced by roughly 75% or $106,050 annually. Staff would then be able to focus additional time on conducting lift station maintenance and sewer system and manhole repairs. Depending upon the outcome of this year’s survey, staff may suggest that the acoustic sewer line survey program be continued, surveying a minimum of one third of the system annually or alternatively for a relatively small increase in total annual operations and maintenance costs surveying the entire system every year.
Staff would like to sole source this project through DRC Construction, Inc., (see Attachment D), who is the sole service provider of this technology for the Rocky Mountain region. DRC Construction, Inc. has been used in the past for sewer system maintenance and diversion cleaning and has performed work satisfactorily and within budget.
Budget Impact
Funds for this project will be appropriated through a second quarter budget amendment, as follows:
|
Fund Name |
Account Number |
Second Quarter Budget Amendment |
Cost |
Current Balance |
Balance After Amendment |
|
Repair & Maintenance Pipelines |
213-4540-445.40-38 |
$342,625 |
$354,120 |
$11,495 |
$354,120 |
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends entering into a services agreement with DRC Construction, Inc. to conduct sewer pipeline and manhole assessments for the amount of $354,120.
Proposed Motion
“I move to recommend to Town Council approval of Resolution as presented”
Attachments
Attachment A: Resolution (Not Attached)
Exhibit 1: DRC Construction, Inc. Services Agreement
Attachment B: RH Borden Product Information
Attachment C: CIRSA Approval Letter
Attachment D: DRC Construction, Inc. Sole Source Justification