On-Call Engineering Services for the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP)

The City of Palo Alto is seeking proposals from qualified firms to provide On-Call Engineering Services to support Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP) for a three-year term. The required services and performance conditions are described in the Scope of Work (or Services). BackgroundThe Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP) is a tertiary treatment facility with an average annual flow capacity of 39 million gallons per day. The main liquid treatment process units consist of in-channel grinder, bar screens, cyclone grit classifier, lift pumps, primary sedimentation tanks, fixed film reactors, aeration basins, secondary clarifiers, dual media filtration, and UV Disinfection. The solids treatment process units consist of gravity sludge thickeners, pumps, scum concentrator, belt filter presses, cake storage bins and screw conveyors. A new Sludge Dewatering and Loadout Facility was commissioned in 2019 replacing the aging

multiple hearth furnaces (Incineration Building) and ancillary air pollution control equipment. The Incineration Building is now decommissioned and is being deconstructed in phases. The filtered effluent is disinfected using ultraviolet rays before discharging into the San Francisco Bay. A portion of the treated final effluent is diverted to the reclamation facility for reuse. The RWQCP anticipates the following several major plant improvements in the next few years, some of which are already underway for construction. Secondary treatment upgrades, including decommissioning of the aging fixed film reactors and modification of the activated sludge biological treatment system for biological nutrient removal (estimated construction schedule 2023-2028). The project will upgrade the facility to a step-feed activated sludge process coupled with a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) process in the existing aeration tanks. The upgraded secondary treatment process will enable the plant to reduce nitrogen through nitrification and denitrification.Primary Sedimentation Tank Rehabilitation and Equipment Room Electrical Upgrade (estimated construction completion in 2024). The project rehabilitates four concrete primary sedimentation tanks and their ancillary systems to extend their useful life for at least another 30 years. New Headworks Facility (under advanced planning). The plant is embarking on planning and preliminary design of the new Headworks Facility to replace and upgrade the raw sewage pumping system and preliminary treatment processes for rags, debris, and grit removal. Advanced Water Purification System (estimated construction schedule 2024 – 2026). The project will improve the quality of the RWQCP’s recycled water by reducing the level of total dissolved solids using microfiltration followed by reverse osmosis. New Outfall Pipeline (near final design). The project includes construction of a new 63-inch high-density polyethylene discharge outfall to South San Francisco Bay and rehabilitation of existing aging outfall to improve the discharge infrastructure and increase outfall capacity during peak wet-weather flow, peak tide, and future sea-level rise scenarios. The RWQCP has four in-house engineers. For economic reasons, the RWQCP engineering group is not staffed with all possible specialty disciplines for needed work. In an emergency or other critical situation, the RWQCP may need the services of an engineering consulting firm with the appropriate specialized knowledge and capabilities. The City intends to contract with a consulting firm (or firms) that has the proper licenses, skills, resources, knowledge of the RWQCP and tools to provide emergency or critical consulting services on an as-needed basis. Some of the work performed under this contract may qualify for the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) reimbursement. Consultant is expected to comply with the CWSRF requirements (see Attachment G – CWSRF Consultant Requirements). TimelineRelease Project Date:March 4, 2024MANDATORY Virtual Pre-Proposal Conference (Mandatory):March 19, 2024, 11:00am A virtual mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held for one hour on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. via Microsoft Teams. All prospective Proposers are required to attend. LINK: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_ODJlM2NjNWMtNzQ2NS00YjljLWJiMDAtNzcxMzJhNWRmYWNl%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%252268949a6d-ce6e-4230-8536-f3e1f8d5dfdd%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%2522e4b787a1-7646-408d-8d3e-5139e6f7289d%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=364a1f07-c21c-41ac-8250-25dc259c4d93&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true Meeting ID: 263 155 845 728 Passcode: RnmMmK Or call in (audio only) +1 650-761-6432,,43638332# Phone Conference ID: 436 383 32#Question Submission Deadline:March 26, 2024, 1:00pmQuestion Response Deadline:March 29, 2024Proposal Submission Deadline:April 2, 2024, 3:00pmFinalists Identified (Tentative):April 23, 2024Consultant Interviews (if needed):May 6, 2024Consultant Selection and Contract Preparation (Tentative):May 20, 2024Work Commences (Tentative):July 1, 2024