R2012-101 AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT WITH ONSITE ENGINEERING, LLC

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.- BACKGROUND: In 1966, Warren&Van Praag, Inc. prepared a drainage study for the City of Decatur that examined the City's flooding problems and attempted to plan for drainage needs in future developments. Then, in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the City invested $19.75 million in drainage improvements throughout the City. The Northeast Drainage Ditch was recommended in that 1966 study and was then constructed by a series of construction projects. The ditch begins at Spring Creek,just south of Mound Road and just east of the current Lutheran School Association property. The ditch then extends south past Pershing Road. From there, the ditch extends south to Garfield Avenue. Another extension of the ditch runs east to 276' Street. A map of the ditch can be found in Figure 1. Since its construction,the ditch has been minimally maintained and efforts are usually reactive in nature. City crews mow the portion of the drainage ditch that can be reached safely; however, city crews cannot remove sediment or large debris that accumulates in the channel. In 2009, the City contracted with Barr&Robison to remove a blockage from a flow control structure and clean approximately 2,400 ft of the Northeast Drainage Ditch north of Hubbard Avenue. This year, the City contracted with Entler Excavating Company, Inc. to remove two large beaver dams in the ditch at Hubbard Avenue. Private industries have also cleaned portions of the ditch at their own expense in an attempt to improve drainage on their property. The Northeast Drainage Ditch was designed to provide drainage of approximately 3 square miles of the City's northeast side, including several large industries such as Caterpillar and ADM. The restoration of the northeast drainage ditch will return the ditch to its original design capacity. The extent of restoration required is large and the project has been divided into two phases. Phase 1 will include that portion of the Northeast Drainage Ditch from Basin 1 to the north and from Basin 1 to the east. The limits of this phase are shown in Figure 2. Phase 2 will include that portion south of Basin 1, including Basin 2 and Basin 3. City staff extended an invitation to the following four local civil engineering consultants to interview for the drainage related project for FY 2012/2013. Interviews were held on March 28, 2012: 1. Bainbridge, Gee, Milanski &Associates, Inc. of Decatur, IL 2. SKS Engineers &Associates, Inc. of Decatur, IL 3. Onsite Engineering, LLC of Decatur, IL 4. Blank, Wesselink, Cook&Associates, Inc. of Decatur, IL Staff believes that Onsite Engineering, LLC understands the requirements of this project and is the best qualified to perform this design quickly and efficiently. Onsite Engineering has the resources available to complete the design and prepare bid documents for the first phase of this project by August 2012. Page 12