Finance Committee — 02/02/2022 Page 7
CONTRACT TO MCFARLAND-JOHNSON TO COMPLETE PHASES 2, 3, AND 4 FOR IMPROVEMENTS AT THE
INTERSECTION OF EAST HOLLIS STREET AND BRIDGE STREET IN THE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $440,939.27.
FUNDING THROUGH DEPARTMENT: 183 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FUND:
53107 ARCHITECT AND ENGINEERING SERVICES/NHDOT GRANT
ON THE QUESTION
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
Yes thank you Mr. Mayor. For the record, Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development. This is a project that has
been a long time coming. As | explained this memo to you, we also have with me Julie Chizmas on line the city’s Long-
Term Transportation Planner. I’m going to ask her to pull up some slides if | may Mr. Mayor that will help better explain
this project. Essentially this is the second phase if you will of a contract that we first entered into in 2018. It was a multi-
phased contract. This contract contemplates phases 2, 3, 4 and | believe phase | was an engineering study that we
completed and now we will be continuing on with preliminary, final, and then bidding services essentially all the design
work for this transportation improvement project.
This project is 100 percent funded by the State so long as we stay at the $3.6 million level. Time is of the essence to
make sure that we maintain the project schedule and the costs that we've been initially quoted. McFarland Johnson is the
engineer of record that will be executing on this. We did competitively bid this through an RFQ back in 2017. We just
recently received approval from the State to proceed with the project. I'll stop my comments there and I’m just going to
ask Julie to quickly walk you all through the slides that she put together. | know some of you are newer to this body and
so this might be a newer project for you even though it’s been around for a few years now.
Julie Chizmas, Long-Term Transportation Planner
Thank you Mayor. Thank you Director Cummings. As was said, my name is Julie Chizmas. I’m a transportation analyst
and long-range planner in the Community Development Division. Don't really have a lot to add to what Tim said. | think
he summed it very well. We went through the engineer study phase of this project with McFarland Johnson and they have
developed an alternative that was approved by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation also the various boards
and committees of the city. You can see alternative were before you. It proposed to improve mobility and access also
facilitate land use and provide an aesthetically pleasing gateway into the city as recommended in the 2004 East Hollis
Street plan.
As Tim said, this is a New Hampshire Department of Transportation project. It follows the guidelines of the local public
agency program which is pretty prescribed and we had followed all the applicable requirements and have received a
notice to proceed with the next three phases of the project — preliminary design, final design, and bidding services. They
also approved the scope and fee for the work as proposed by McFarland Johnson and the contract amount is
$440,939.27. As Tim said, it is 100 percent federally funded and the city will be reimbursed at 100 percent.
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
If | may Mr. Mayor just one last comment. Just so folks know that the design that was ultimately selected as the preferred
alternative as well as the selection of the engineering firm was through a steering committee. It was a grass roots
initiative where we had local property owners in and around the area. Also members of the Board of Aldermen particularly
Alderwoman June Caron from Ward 7 participating, a couple city staffers that ultimately helped steer and help make the
recommendation both on the engineering firm and this preferred alternative design that is before you.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you Director Cummings. | just kind of a quick question. | do remember these
conversations that we’ve been having ongoing. If we were to miss this window, things are going up and so on and we go
over that cost. What would be the effect to the city? Right now we don’t have to pay anything out of pocket. It’s not
affecting the taxpayers and so on but if we delay this, what would be the effect? Do you know?
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
I’m going to defer to Julie Chizmas. If she has that, it’s a bracketed tier approach So it’s not just one number but it’s within
arange. We have to pay a certain percentage and then after it exceeds that number, then we have to pay a little bit more.
Julie do you happen to have that? | was hoping to delay it long enough that she was going to be able to pull it up. Clearly
| didn’t speak long enough.
