Public Works responds to street questions

1) Question: Will the City aggressively advertise contracting opportunities to out-of-area firms so we can have a more robust competition for road work?

Answer: The City of Tulsa currently advertises all projects with the "Tulsa Daily Commerce & Legal News" and posts all projects on the City of Tulsa website. In addition to that public advertisement, plans are provided to the Dodge Report, Bid News and Southwest Construction News. The Dodge Report is a national firm owned by McGraw-Hill and has a national database that publishes work being bid throughout the United States. The Southwest Construction News is a group from Oklahoma and provides a plan room for contractors in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. They report that they also provide information to contractors in surrounding states. The Bid News is from Oklahoma and maintains a plan room in Oklahoma City and Tulsa for contractors. The City of Tulsa also provides a list of upcoming projects for bid to the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). ABC and the AGC are national organizations with offices in the state of Oklahoma.

During the council's Street Committee meetings this issue was discussed. There were two main points of view:

1. The Sales Tax and Bond Issues are funds raised and paid by "Tulsans" so therefore keep the work local. To that end, we have a 50% residency affidavit that contractors submit as part of their sealed bids for Tulsa work. The intent is to encourage and ensure "Tulsans" benefit from a locally raised tax even though a contractor may be from out of the area.

2. We need to open up a perceived closed market. Open up our work to OKC, Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas contractors. The intent, as you noted in your question, is to get better bids.

In the past, our construction program has attracted contractors from surrounding states and other Oklahoma communities which have set up operations in our area. As we advertise our projects and the word gets out regarding the size, magnitude, and type of work, interest will be generated. A consistent program is attractive to contractors. The work would not just be a one shot attempt at getting work. Once here they are then in a better position to operate a sustainable effort. The most recent example is the extensive sanitary sewer rehab program we ran from 1990's to 2006. We had specialty and general contractors dealing with manhole and pipe lining type projects come to town. As the work curtailed, they either diversified into other types of work or left the area. We get similar attention from the professional consultants in the surrounding states.

Having contractors come into the community does not occur without some conflict and growing pains. Each contractor must become accustomed to doing business in the Tulsa environment and in some cases in urbanized areas. There are areas that must be worked through, i.e. our technical specifications are fairly standard, but there are unique items we have added because they perform well and there are other portions deleted because they have not worked over the years; the standard drawings vary slightly; techniques of construction to meet our performance specifications; and getting acquainted and develop a working relationship with new superintendent personnel and project managers. There is an initial time investment in those unfamiliar with our work environment. There are successes and failures. We have been and are open to new contractors. It does work best, when they open a local office and there is authority delegated to a local individual to deal with day-to-day issues.

The state statutes and our bidding processes require that we do award to the lowest, responsible bidder. We have a prequalification process to screen the capabilities and financial viability of the contractor that work for the citizens of the City of Tulsa. Our bonding requirements are another level of protection for the taxpayer. So the City's program is set up with certain levels of safeguards that do allow us to open up our work to "out-of-area" contractors.

As far as additional, specific efforts and plans to "reach out" to out-of-area contractors, a process has not been defined. One approach may be to solicit approved or pre-qualified contractors from surrounding state's Department of Transportation agencies. A mailing could be generated that would introduce the funding program and explain our pre-qualification ordinance with information on how to be eligible to work for the City. The pre-qualification process is not something to be completed after a project advertises. It takes time to generate the required information for the application, have the background information verified by the City Clerk's office, and then have the application approved by the contractor pre-qualification committee.

As outlined above, the notification of public bids is currently going to a wide audience, but it is a business decision for the out-of-area contractors to expand their operation to our area. The opportunity to participate in the amount of proposed work may be the needed incentive.

2) Question: Will the City do a better job of coordinating projects with ODOT, so the City doesn't snarl alternate routes while ODOT is working on a freeway?

Answer: The City of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation coordinate all work where an overlap between a city street and a highway exist. Through these coordination meetings both entities try to minimize the disruption to users of the transportation system. With the extensive work planned on I-44 over the next 5 to 10 years, the intermittent road and bridge maintenance on the Broken Arrow Expressway, I-244, US 169 and 75, holding off arterial rehab in the vicinity of these facilities will be a challenge. The projects will be reviewed and adjustments in implementation will be made. ODOT has recently released their approved 8-year plan and we will be coordinating with our ODOT Division 8 representatives to mitigate the disruption of moving people, goods, and services in the vicinity of our highway segments. It should be noted that it is not always conflicting transportation projects, but there are also water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure repairs, maintenance, and improvements that can create local road lane closures as well. The best approach has been generating maps with all "planned" work and compare to the work scheduled by ODOT. There have been occasions that avoiding a conflict was not possible. We must make our detours and lane closures function together the best they can. In the instances of conflict, we must be flexible and reactive in a timely manner to mitigate the disruptions.

3) Question: I see money in the package for rebuilding streets, as we've been doing. But where is the money for paving, crack sealing, milling and overlay? Is there adequate money in this package for the preventative maintenance we haven't been doing?

Answer: In the proposed street package there is $40,776,000 budgeted for arterial and non-arterial routine and preventive maintenance. Arterial streets would receive $15,494,000 and the non-arterial streets would receive $25,282,000. These funds would be used for crack sealing, fog sealing and overlays with some milling or leveling courses. A portion of the 70% to 80% of the funds for rehabilitation will include overlays that have not been adequately funded for many years. Those rehabilitation (not reconstruction) dollar amounts are: Arterial - $109 million, Non-Arterial - $177 million. Our funding over the past 16 years has been right at 50% of the funds needed to maintain a PCI through a funding package term. We have been on a downward trend for many years. The 2006 Sales Tax (6 years) provided the following for Routine and Preventive work citywide:

Arterial- $2 million and Non-Arterial- $3 million. The funding proposed in this package for Arterial R & P is 7.7 times the 2006 Sales Tax and the Non-Arterial R & P will receive 8.4 times that in the 2006 Sales Tax. The R & P work is getting an incredible boost with this proposed package. Due to the lack of funding for Street Operations and the Capital Maintenance program, we have developed a very large backlog of work and it will require a longer horizon than 5 years to correct.

Is this adequate? Street work funding needs could be added to the proverbial list of items never satisfied. Some would like the streets "fixed" overnight. There is not enough funding to do so. This program is a piece of a larger, phased program to move towards a PCI of 70. This funding level is adequate for us to turn the corner and begin seeing a real impact on our street network. We are looking at a 12 to 15 year horizon in achieving our PCI goals.

The pavement management system optimizes the funds invested in the street network such that it maximizes the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) and minimizes the backlog. The way the network responds to the dollar amounts invested are largely impacted by the backlog or the needs of the entire system. We have run sensitivity analyses for a certain dollar invested over time and through various scenarios, we found that our street network system benefits the most when we invest 70% to 80% in rehabilitation, 10% to 20% in reconstruction, and 10% to 20% in routine and preventive strategies. When we set out for the 70 PCI in 10 years, the distribution optimum was 70% rehabilitation, 20% reconstruction, and 10% routine and preventive. Based on the level of work, we have provided a relative comparison of dollar investment compared to the life of the pavement: If a pavement is worked on fairly early in its life-cycle, you invest a $1 to maintain. If you postpone maintenance on a pavement and allow it to deteriorate to the point of rehabilitation (minor to major) prior to working on, you would need to invest $3 to $5. If totally neglected, reconstruction can cost $10 and more, relatively speaking.

With a brand new road, our best maintenance efforts would be to continue routine work on 4- to 7-year increments, perform preventive on 8- to 15-year intervals, major rehabilitation from 12- to 20-year intervals, and reconstruction would be at 20- to 40-year intervals (asphalt) and 30- to 60-year intervals (concrete). Based on literature and life-cycle analyses, pavements can be extended for twice their service life with proper maintenance (all strategies).

The rehabilitation category includes overlays. Depending on the road segment it may include patching from 0% to 30% of the area. Each road segment is different. Some you can move right to an overlay with tacking to the existing pavement; some require leveling courses, milling and/or patching to address subgrade or pavement section failures. The idea is not just overlaying without regard to what you are "covering up". One of the keys to successful overlay program is the preparation work. If not prepared properly, overlays will not survive our freeze-thaw cycles and storm events. We will have pop-offs from concrete and/or base or subgrade failures will show themselves again in a short amount of time through the newly overlaid roadway. There is a balance to consider when looking at traffic loads, original street section, and the adjacent uses as to the type of appropriate repairs. Just as an example: there are 2-lane road segments throughout the City that are old county-type roads that are asphalt constructed on a soil base or soil/rock base. It is not cost feasible to reconstruct the entire road segment, because none of the base is "excellent" and would have to be completely developed, but by milling and/or providing a leveling course, with minor patching (bridges, culverts, driveway locations, etc.) and an overlay you expend hundreds of thousand dollars versus millions and you have a reliable and stable street section. Not all rehabilitation is major, nor should it be. It is a road-by-road, lane-by-lane review and determination. We want to stretch the available funding over as much of the street network as possible. At the same time, we do not want to compromise doing the right treatment on the roads in a program.

When we evaluate the pavements in the design review, we take cores, i.e. borings through the pavement and into the subgrade, along the road segment to see if it is a candidate for just an overlay or a point repair and then overlay. We develop budgets based on a medium to worse condition and have to predict how the pavement will deteriorate through the period of the funding package. The last thing we want to do is underestimate the severity of a pavement distress. However, this does occur through the life of the funding package. Some completed road segments we have savings and then we will do budget transfers (formal process) to other projects in that funding package to cover under estimating the level of work required.

Another source of under estimation is from public input during the design process. This is when the neighbors identify other issues in the neighborhood that are contributing to the pavement's deterioration, i.e. standing water, repeated water line breaks, collapsed sewer (storm or sanitary), gas line crossings, PSO buries conduits, etc. That is why we use contingencies during our project screening process. We do plan on additional funds to address the City utility issues of water, sewer, or storm sewer. I apologize for getting wordy with this response, but there are overlaps in the pavement repair strategy definitions and their applications across all variables encountered in Tulsa.

In an attempt to control the public's expectation of a program, we only map those roads that we know will look new when we are done. In the 1990's, we mapped all areas regardless of the rehabilitation strategy. When we only crack sealed or patched a street, and then overlaid an adjacent street in the neighborhood, we developed some very angry, disappointed citizens. The expectations were set high when they saw a map with their area marked.

To manage citizen expectations is why we only show streets with known work levels that will result in new "looking" streets. There will be additional areas that get just an overlay that have not been "declared". Those areas will be finalized after we do some additional field work. This work will be performed if the vote is affirmative. We drive the streets for confirmation of the PMS data and forecasts. Another purpose of driving is to refine logical termini points in neighborhoods. We don't want to stop work mid block or create an inconsistent work boundary. Even though the streets were constructed at the same time, but due to localized conditions, they perform differently, e.g. one road may drain better, a road may have been built over a fill area, a utility corridor has adversely impacted the foundation support of the road section, etc. In neighborhoods, some streets are fine and don't require major work, while some may require reconstruction. We try to define those very clearly and have done so in the notebooks and mapping.

The dollar amount for overlays is incorporated in a portion of the preventive and rehabilitation strategies. The rehabilitation work will be a minimum of an overlay. Therefore, 70% of the funds for asphalt will include an overlay. Until we get underway in this program, and do some cores and detailed surveys, it is not possible to identify how much will be "just" overlays. I understand from talking with others outside the City, the thought is getting out and just overlaying roads is the best way to get good streets. I agree with that to the point that overlaying the right street is critical. We will do all we can to stretch the funds as far as we can. We inspect these roads to provide the right treatment, not put good money after bad. We do not want to do overkill, but there is a history of covering symptoms and not addressing the localized causes of some street failures. It is not one solution for all streets.

Please note that the funding amounts being discussed in this program is a huge increase over past funding amounts in previous funding packages. This package is providing for all strategies approximately 10 times the amount of funding for non-arterial streets and over 5 times the amount for arterial streets that was allotted in the 2006 Sales Tax, 6 year program. We are anticipating, based on the discussions in the Council Street committee, there is a long term commitment to the streets and that everyone understood that the commitment included historic level funding over the next 12 to 15 years. We are doing all we can to move our overall street network to an average PCI of 70. Regardless of the funding levels, we will be working towards optimizing the pavement condition of our street network and improving as much road area as possible.