Karon: Based on our conversation at the TxDOT conference and the comments that we received from your office, we have revised the bidder pre-qualification form. Please take a look at the attached file and let me know if we have a document that meets the state requirements. We appreciate your input. Feel free to email or call me if you have any questions. Frank McIllwain, PE Garver From: Karon Wiedemann [mailto:KWIEDEMA@dot.state.tx.us] Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 9:16 AM To: McIllwain, Frank O. Cc: Amy Slaughter; Clay Barnett; Harry Lorton; JoelJenkinson; Mark Acevedo; Griffin, Michael, J; Nancy Cline; Sheri Quinlan Subject: RE: Addison Airport - Construciton Contractor Qualifications Good Morning, Frank! Sunny day in Austin and I hope it is the same your way. Too bad I'm at work...bummer. For this process it will not be a rating and ranking type situation. It's a thing of being qualified or not being qualified. You will need to determine the very specifics of what the contractor must possess in skills and experience that would make them qualified. It is a yes or no type of situation. For the bidding process for construction contracts with the state statutes that prevail in Texas for this project, we are not allowed to select the contractor on a qualifications basis. It is low bid period. But we can be sure that the contractors that submit their bids are qualified. Our current qualifications include the financial ability, equipment, appropriate experience, insurance, bonding and such sufficient to ensure they can handle the project they are bidding. You want additional qualifications so you will need to cover the existing qualifications that we require of all projects plus whatever else is necessary to deal with the specialities of this project. Those items must be quantifiable so we know if the contractor has them yes or no. There is no need for points. You could possibly develop almost a check-list type process of the must haves. Since we accept the highway qualified contractors, you might want to talk to Sheri Quinlan and see if she can possibly obtain a qualification form that the contractors submit when they get qualified for TxDOT highway jobs. That could be a good basis to give you ideas on how you want to proceed. Karon >>> "McIllwain, Frank O." 3/24/2010 5:37 PM >>> Karon: No need to apologize, we appreciate your assistance. You raise some good points about how to quantify the items. Our plan was to perform the pre-qualification evaluation similar to the evaluation for engineering selection. Does TxDOT quantify the items in a engineering or planning consultant solicitation, such as developing a sliding scale of point values vs. number of similar projects to determine total point value for that category in the selection ranking? Frank McIllwain, PE Garver, LLC From: Karon Wiedemann [mailto:KWIEDEMA@dot.state.tx.us] Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:32 PM To: McIllwain, Frank O. Cc: Amy Slaughter; Clay Barnett; Harry Lorton; Joel Jenkinson; Mark Acevedo; Griffin, Michael, J; Nancy Cline; Sheri Quinlan Subject: RE: Addison Airport - Construciton Contractor Qualifications Hi, Frank! I apologize for the delay in response but I was out last week and came back to about 900 email message. I finally just made it down to yours. Give us a little time to review your proposed qualification requirements. I've read them and do have a minor concern about the one requiring a contractor to have experience on airports similar to Addison. I'm not sure what similar to Addison means....runway length, based aircraft, or what. It also seems to just be another element of the evaluation criteria above it. I had to re-read it to make sure I understood what would be different from the qualifications from contractors working on similar airport projects. Contractors working on similar airport projects does seem to cover what you are requesting from this item. Anyway, I am sure we can determine what is most appropriate and quantifiable. Quantifiable is the next issue. From these qualification items, we need to know what it is that you have to see from the contractor that shows they meet your requirements. It can't be totally subjective where you just look at qualification information and say these guys are and they guys aren't. We will need the specifics that state what is an airport similar to Addison so when a contractor says he has worked at Little Rock, we know that airport is similar to Addison. How will we know which airports are similar to Addison? Do the contractors need have worked on only one airport requiring runway closure or 15 airports requiring closure? We need the specifics so the contractors can be qualified equally. You might want to start looking at this which might have an impact on your qualification request. We will be back with you on your qualifications process as we give it additional review. Karon Karon Wiedemann TxDOT - Aviation Director, Grant Management (512) 416-4520 (512) 416-4510 FAX kwiedema@dot.state.tx.us >>> "McIllwain, Frank O." 3/15/2010 6:27 PM >>> Karon: After consulting with Town of Addison and Addison Airport staff, we have developed the attached criteria and point system for pre-qualification of bidders on the upcoming runway rehabilitation project. We would like to publish an advertisement requesting qualifications based on the anticipated project criteria. We would provide preliminary plans/specifications with description of work and construction limitations regarding night work and time restraints for opening and closing of runway each night, including liquidated damages if runway cannot open when scheduled. Thank you for working with us on this pre-qualification process. Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions. Frank McIllwain, PE Garver, LLC From: Karon Wiedemann [mailto:KWIEDEMA@dot.state.tx.us] Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 9:33 AM To: McIllwain, Frank O. Cc: Amy Slaughter; David Fulton; joel.jenkinson@; mike.nicely@; ncline@; Siemens, Paul, T Subject: RE: Addison Airport - Construciton Contractor Qualifications Frank: Just send it to me and I'll get it to all necessary parties. There will be multiple people who will need to review and approve the requested qualifications and criteria but no need to inundate too many email boxes! I'll get it where it needs to go. Karon >>> "McIllwain, Frank O." 1/21/2010 9:19 AM >>> Karon: Thank you so much for your assistance. We will develop the list of qualifications and evaluation criteria to start the qualification process now. Should I submit our suggested list of qualifications and evaluation criteria to just you or include others? Of course, we will copy the Airport and Town on all correspondence. Thanks again. I think our work in advance of bidding will pay dividends during construction. Frank McIllwain, PE Garver, LLC From: Karon Wiedemann [mailto:KWIEDEMA@dot.state.tx.us] Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 9:06 AM To: David Fulton; McIllwain, Frank O.; mike.nicely@ Cc: Amy Slaughter; joel.jenkinson@; ncline@; Siemens, Paul, T Subject: Re: Addison Airport - Construciton Contractor Qualifications Frank: We can do a contractor qualifications process first, qualify the contractors that meet your standards, and allow only those contractors to bid. This does obviously add to the length of time required to award the contract but you could do your qualifications now. We would need the specific requirements and qualifications that are required of each contractor, how you would evaluate and grade them, and then we could begin the qualifications process. Bids would only be allowed from those qualified contractors. Karon Karon Wiedemann TxDOT - Aviation Director, Grant Management (512) 416-4520 (512) 416-4510 FAX kwiedema@dot.state.tx.us >>> "McIllwain, Frank O." 1/9/2010 11:10 AM >>> Gentlemen: I’m writing to follow up on our meeting at Addison Airport and discussion of the upcoming runway construction project. The runway construction needs to be performed by a contractor qualified and capable of performing the asphalt pavement repairs and overlay and able to meet FAA specifications and tight time frames. This project is unique in that the repairs and overlay must be performed during night and weekend periods. The Airport and its tenants cannot afford extended runway closure due to the construction contractor’s lack of experience, equipment, or capacity. We would like to add contractor experience and qualifications as a part of the criteria for award of the construction contract. Please understand that we are not asking for a qualification-based selection for construction contract award. We would like to have a mechanism in the bid documents to prevent award to a contractor who little or no experience with FAA specifications or airfield paving. Please check within your organizations to see if there is a way we can add contractor experience and qualifications as a part of the criteria for award of the construction contract. I will check with our aviation engineering staff and let you know what we have done on similar projects. Thanks for your assistance. Frank McIllwain, PE Senior Project Manager Office: 972-377-7480 Ext: 222 Mobile: 214-250-3967 E-mail: FOMcIllwain@GarverUSA.com =========================== Don't Mess with Texas Some things you should keep to yourself... like trash. Learn more at www.dontmesswithtexas.org =========================== Don't Mess with Texas Some things you should keep to yourself... like trash. Learn more at www.dontmesswithtexas.org Congratulations to Texas Adopt-a-Highway volunteers for 25 years of keeping our state litter-free. Find out how you can get involved at www.dot.state.tx.us/trv/aah/ Congratulations to Texas Adopt-a-Highway volunteers for 25 years of keeping our state litter-free. Find out how you can get involved at www.dot.state.tx.us/trv/aah/