Report to: General Committee                                      Date Report Authored: March 12, 2010

 

 

SUBJECT:                          Facility Accessibility Retrofits – Prequalification/Tender

PREPARED BY:               Paul Chung, B.Tech., MHPM Project Managers Inc.
                                            Henry Tse, P. Eng., Project Manager

 

 

RECOMMENDATION:

1)                  THAT the report titled “Facility Accessibility Retrofits – Prequalification/Tender” be received; and

2)                  THAT Quadrangle Architects Limited (QAL) presentation be received; and,

 

3)                  THAT the schedule presented by QAL highlighting 3 separate tender packages be received; and

 

4)                  THAT Council authorizes Staff to proceed with the Request For Proposal (RFP), and subsequent award to the lowest compliant bidder for up to 4 elevators; and

 

5)                  THAT Council authorizes Staff to proceed with a pre-qualification and tender process for General Contractors for the construction phase of the project; and

 

6)                  THAT Council authorizes Staff to award the construction contract for each of the respective Tenders in accordance to expenditure control policy of Town of Markham up to a total maximum of $2,690,471 and that all awards for tenders over $350,000 be authorized by the CAO; and

 

7)                  FURTHER THAT Staff be authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this resolution.

 

PURPOSE:

The primary purpose of this report is to provide Council with an update of the Infrastructure Stimulus Facility Accessibility Retrofits (FAR) Project.  Staff also seeks Council’s authorization to proceed with the RFP and subsequent award of the long-delivery elevators, as well as the tender issue and subsequent award of 3 separate construction contracts.

 

BACKGROUND:

The basis for this Infrastructure Stimulus project is the Barrier Removal Action Plan for Town facilities, authored by SPH Planning and Consulting Limited (SPH) in 2008.  Work will include the implementation of accessibility retrofit measures to the following existing 11 facilities:

 

 

  • Armadale Community Centre
  • Crosby Memorial Community Centre
  • Markham Civic Centre
  • Mount Joy Community Centre
  • Milliken Mills Community Centre
  • Markham Theatre
  • Markham Village Community Centre
  • R.J. Clatworthy Arena
  • Thornhill Community Centre and Library
  • Unionville Library
  • Economic Development Department -  Convergence Centre

 

The scope of work will primarily include elevators, accessible washrooms upgrades (including touch-less faucets, toilets, urinals and paperless hand drying etc.), power door operators, replacement of door hardware, visual warning measures, etc.  The project must be complete by March 31, 2011 to receive the Infrastructure Stimulus funding.

 

OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:

The Project Architect, Quadrangle Architects Limited (QAL), came on board at the end of December, 2009.  QAL presented its preliminary work plan in mid February, 2010.  QAL proposes to group the 11 facilities into 3 separate tender packages, to be released sequentially as the designs are completed.  Staff directed QAL to prioritize the facilities requiring an elevator in the first construction tender package, as elevators are anticipated to be long delivery items.


QAL expressed their concern for the long delivery wait time for elevators.  To mitigate the potential risk of not completing the project on-time for the Stimulus funding, the project team concurred with QAL’s recommendation to pre-purchase the elevators in conjunction with the preparation of the construction tender. Once the first construction package is awarded, the elevator contract(s) will be assigned to the successful general contractor to coordinate installation and commissioning.

The Project Team made a presentation to the Town’s Advisory Committee on Accessibility on November 18, 2009.  Since coming on board, QAL had conducted numerous planning sessions and site visits with pertinent internal and external stakeholders, including the input of SPH Planning & Consulting – the consultant who authored the original accessibility audit for the Town.  The purpose of these meetings was to solicit more advice on scope and design requirements for the Design Development phase of the project.

 

The first construction package will include the four (4) facilities where elevators will be installed:  Markham Village Community Centre, Mount Joy Community Centre, Crosby Memorial Arena and Economic Development Department – Convergence Centre on Warden Avenue.  All other accessibility retrofit measures for these four facilities will also be included in the scope of work.  QAL anticipates tender issue to be Q2, 2010 and construction completion by Q4, 2010.

 

The second group of facilities that will be worked on are Markham Civic Centre, Thornhill Community Centre and Milliken Mills Community Centre.  Work will include upgrading customer service desks, washrooms, installation of power door operators, etc.  These particular facilities were grouped together based on magnitude and scope of work.  QAL anticipates tender issue of this package to be Q2 2010, with construction completion by Q4, 2010.

 

The third group of facilities that will be worked on are Markham Theatre, R.J. Clatworthy Arena, Armadale Community Centre and Unionville Library.  These facilities represent the remaining scope of work for this project, and in some cases, have received upgrades over the past few years.  QAL anticipates issuance of this tender package in Q3, 2010, with construction completion by Q1, 2011.

 

The Town has submitted an application to the Infrastructure Stimulus funding authority to add in the project scope the installation of an elevator for an additional facility, i.e. the Convergence Building on Warden Ave.  Staff plans to include this work in the first construction tender package.

 

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The total approved and available budget is $3.2M.  The following table outlines the financial position of the project as of March 2010.

 

 

Staff will be updating the budget after each construction tender.   The scope of the 2nd and the 3rd construction package may change, depending on the contract cost of the first construction package.  All effort will be extended to curtail project costs within the approved budget of $3.2M.

 

 

HUMAN RESOURCES CONSIDERATIONS

No additional operations staff is required.

 

ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PRIORITIES:

This project aligns with the “Accessible Communication & Services” action plan under the DIVERSITY strategic priority.

 

The project also aligns with a number of goals in the draft “Green Print Community Sustainability Plan” under the ENVIRONMENT strategic priority - e.g. Social Equity, Access & Mobility, Energy & Climate (e.g. paperless hand dryers).

 

ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS:

The intent of this project is to implement accessibility upgrades to ten Town owned facilities as identified in a report prepared by SPH Planning & Consulting Limited (SPH) titled “Barrier Removal Action Plans”.  Accessibility upgrades will be designed to comply with the current Ontario Building Code (OBC) requirements, the Town’s current Accessibility Design Guidelines, and “Best Practices” considerations from the DRAFT AODA Accessibility Standards for the Built Environment.

 

BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:

Recreation Services

Markham Public Libraries

Financial Services

 

RECOMMENDED BY:

 

 

 

 

 

___________________________                                        __________________________

Glen Taylor,                                                                            Brenda Librecz,

Facilities Manager,                                                                   Commissioner, Community

Recreational Services                                                                & Fire Services

 

Attachment A: Project Schedule

 

 

Q:\Commission Share\Operations and Asset Management\Reports\2010\Asset Mgmt\Facility Access Retrofits Report for 2010-04-26 GC.docx