A subcommittee made up of members of the Moretown Select Board is vetting proposed construction inspectors for its upcoming sidewalk project.
At the board’s August 19 meeting, subcommittee members reported to the full board on their progress. The committee has gone through six resumes for the project and narrowed their circle to five and then to three, making a primary selection of Donald L. Hamlin Consulting Engineers.
The subcommittee wanted to add a stipulation that whichever consultant they hire must have a minimum of eight years of work experience but learned that they could not add that stipulation.
The top three selected by the committee were Donald L. Hamlin Consulting Engineers, GPI Construction Inc. and John Turner Consulting. The board will only send out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a construction inspector to one of those three.
If the board does not like the first choice consultant cost, then the committee would move to the second. This method of finding the right consulting engineer is considered an “At-the-Ready” approach.
Moretown had two options going into this project when picking engineering contracts. The select board could have chosen to go through the regular submission of an RFP process or go with an At-the-Ready process using preselected and qualified consultants from VTrans.
At-the-Ready consultants are in three different categories. One, design, focuses on scoping studies, surveys, environmental permitting, hydraulic analysis and other estimates.
Another category is project management; this includes permits, contract documentation, and progress reporter, coordination with VTrans, and coordinating with municipal officials, residents, consultants and contractors.
The final category is construction inspection. This service handles recordkeeping, report composing, review of invoices and payment requests, keeping an eye on traffic control, inspection of materials and equipment.
Total costs associated with the sidewalk project total $375,000. Ten percent will be paid by the town ($37,500) which is using money from the Children’s Deer Yard Fund. The remaining funds ($337,500) will be paid by a grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s 2013 Bicycle and Pedestrian Program.
The select board will hear another report from the committee and project manager Pat Travers at an upcoming select board meeting.
