THE PURCHASING DIVISION AND THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT/TRAFFIC ENGINEERING DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
The Office of Economic and Small Business Development did not establish a County Business Enterprise participation goal for this contract (Exhibit 2).
The purpose of this contract is to provide labor, materials, equipment, service, and incidentals to locate and mark underground utilities and facilities prior to construction. The work involves specialized equipment and software to perform various underground utility locating services, including ground penetrating radar and vacuum digging to prevent damage to the County's underground utilities and facilities.
On August 17, 2018, Groups 1, 3, and 4 were awarded as a "clean" low bid to USIC Locating Services, Inc. (USIC), as no bidder was determined to be nonresponsive or nonresponsible by the Director of Purchasing, no protests were filed, and more than one bidder submitted a response to this solicitation. The Board was notified of award recommendation on August 13, 2018 through the Low Bid Report process. There were no requests for Board action or protest; therefore, the Director of Purchasing awarded the contract by Groups (three different vendors). However, during the onboarding process with USIC for Groups 1, 3 and 4, the Traffic Engineering Division became aware that although USIC’s locating system is compatible with the County’s DigTrack software to receive locating requests, USIC's system cannot send the results back through the County’s DigTrack software system. The latter action is very critical to the County and, as a result, on January 3, 2019, the Director of Purchasing rescinded the award to USIC as they cannot perform the requirements of the contract. The other group awards (Group 2 to High Tech Engineering, Inc. and Group 5 to Venegroup Services Inc.) remained.
The Traffic Engineering Division has reviewed the bid submitted by High Tech Engineering, Inc. and concurs with the recommendation for award for Group 1 to High Tech Engineering, Inc. (Exhibit 3). Two evaluations were completed for High Tech Engineering, Inc.; the firm has an overall rating of 4.59 out of a possible 5. Copies of High Tech Engineering, Inc.'s vendor performance evaluations are available upon request.
The Purchasing Division has researched the prices submitted by the recommended bidders, High Tech Engineering, Inc., and has determined that the prices submitted are fair and reasonable in comparison to the previous Broward County contract (Exhibit 4).
The amounts referenced in this agenda item have been rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Vendor payments will be based on the actual total bid amount. The bid tabulation reflects the actual amount of the award.
Incumbent: High Tech Engineering, Inc., Contract No. G1325001B1, Subsurface Facility and Utility Locating Services; Contract Term: August 21, 2015 through August 20, 2018. Expenditures to date: $1,940,944.
Groups rescinded from USIC (Group 3 and 4) is under the delegated award authority and will be awarded by the Director of Purchasing.
There was no protest or appeal filed regarding the original Recommendation for Award for this procurement.
The revised Recommendation for Award was posted on the Purchasing Division website from March 8, 2019 through March 14, 2019 to allow for any protest; there were no protests filed.
The bid posted on April 27, 2018 and opened on May 21, 2018; six bids were received with no declinations (Exhibit 1).
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