On-Call Dam Safety Consulting Services

The City of Seattle is seeking qualifications for On-Call Dam Safety Consulting Services . Qualifications are due no later than 4:00 pm on Tuesday, November 12, 2024 . All questions are to be submitted through the e-procurement portal at https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/seattle no later than 4:00 pm on Thursday, October 17, 2024 .

A. Purpose and Background

The purpose of issuing this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to contract for On-Call Dam Safety Consulting Services on an as-needed basis from qualified consulting firms to provide dam safety engineering and program services for Seattle City Light (City Light) as part of the execution of its dam safety program. City Light reserves the option of contracting with one or more Consultants through this RFQ process. Consultants may be comprised of teams of one or more firms and are encouraged to include WBME firms are part of the team. For the purposes of this RFQ document, the term Consultant shall refer to the prime consultant responding to this solicitation, inclusive of any subconsultants. It is anticipated that this RFQ will result in awarding a Contract to multiple prime consultants, henceforth referred to as Consultant(s) in this RFQ document.

The selected Consultant(s) will provide dam safety services to assist City Light’s dam safety program in its mission to ensure its dams do not present unreasonable risk to people, property, and the environment. The scope of dam safety tasks generally includes, but are not limited to, four main categories: 1) FERC Part 12D Inspection; 2) Engineering Analyses, Assessment and Inspection; 3) Design and Construction Support Services; and 4) Dam Safety Program Administration.

City Light owns and operates seven hydroelectric powerhouses from six dams owned by City Light: Boundary Dam, Ross Dam, Diablo Dam, Gorge Dam, Newhalem Creek, and Cedar Falls Masonry Dam; and from one dam owned by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU): South Fork Tolt Dam. Cedar Falls and Tolt are jointly operated and managed by City Light and SPU. All dams, with the exception of Cedar Falls, are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as provided in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 18, Part 12. Cedar Falls is regulated by the Washington State Department of Ecology (WA DOE). All dams are within the State of Washington.

This work will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance (O&M) and capital improvement project (CIP) budgets allocated to Seattle City Light’s Dam Safety Program and Generation Facilities as appropriate.

The consulting services are anticipated to be in support of dam safety at City Light’s main generation facilities and their appurtenant works, summarized below.

Boundary Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. P-2144: Boundary Dam is a concrete double-curvature thin arch dam approximately 340-feet high.

Skagit Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. P-553: Skagit consists of three developments with dams and powerhouses; Ross, Diablo, and Gorge.

• Ross Dam is an concrete arch dam approximately 540-feet high.
• Diablo Dam is concrete arch main dam with gravity spillway sections, approximately 389-feet high.
• Gorge Dam is a concrete arch and gravity dam, approximately 300-feet high.

South Fork Tolt Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 2959: South Fork Tolt Dam is an earthfill embankment dam, approximately 200-feet high.

Cedar Falls: Cedar Falls dam is a cyclopean concrete gravity dam, regulated by WA DOE.

Key project details for each of City Light’s owned and operated facilities can be provided upon request.

A. Performance Schedule

The term of the contract shall extend for a period of ten (10) years from the date of the execution by the General Manger/Chief Executive Officer of City Light or their designee with the ability to be extended as needed at the sole discretion of the City Light. Under this Contract, the Consultant(s) will perform a body of work for an agreed cost and schedule as defined in a Work Authorization. Work under this Contract will be assigned to one of the awarded Consultants using Work Authorizations that contain scope and cost for a period of one-year. Most dam safety related engineering tasks generally stem from inspection and assessment by City Light, consultants, and/or regulators and not all are known currently.

When City Light identifies a future body of work to be completed under this Contract, City Light will request proposals from Consultant(s) awarded under this Contract. The proposal will be scored and the body of work will be assigned by the selected Consultant via Work Authorization. Because each Work Authorization is limited to a duration of one-year, additional Work Authorizations will be executed if needed to complete the body of work. Assuming the Consultant’s performance is satisfactory at City Light’s sole discretion, subsequent Work Authorizations will be issued to the Consultant initially retained for a given body of work.

The Contract is expected to complete upcoming Part 12D inspection of facilities and additional engineering activities resulting from future Part 12D inspections through 2034. The timelines for future Part 12D Inspections for each of City Light’s hydroelectric facilities are listed in the table below. City Light plans to assign a Part 12D Consultant from the awarded Consultant(s) under this Contract for as three separate bodies of work for Boundary, Skagit, and Cedar Falls.

Contingent upon satisfactory and successful completion of tasks determined at the sole discretion of City Light, City Light plans to retain the same Consultant(s) selected for Part 12 Services and the scope and cost negotiated on an annual basis through Work Authorizations. For example, the firm assigned the Boundary Periodic Inspection in 2025 is expected to be retained through the 2030 Comprehensive Assessment for Boundary.

However, City Light does not guarantee all future Part 12D inspections will be assigned to selected firms selected under this Contract. Consultants assigned to perform the Part 12D inspections are not guaranteed nor excluded from performing the follow-up work resulting from the Part 12D inspections. Follow-up work is anticipated to be assigned via a selection process among awarded Consultant(s) under this Contract.

Table 2. List of upcoming Part 12D inspections for City Light's hydroelectric projects

Work to be performed under the On-Call Dam Safety Consultant Services Contract is anticipated to be intermittent in nature with work assigned to the Consultant (s) by City Light on an as-needed basis. City Light does not guarantee the amount, frequency, or type of work that City Light will authorize under the Contract. City Light reserves the right to issue future solicitations for firms to perform the types of work described within this Contract.

Specific tasks will be negotiated between City Light and the Consultant(s) at the time the services are required by City Light. The scope of work and cost will be developed and agreed to within a written Work Authorization for each task. Each task may require services in anyone, or a combination, of the listed disciplines as addressed later in this document. The specific scope, deliverables, estimated cost and scheduling of such services will be defined in detail in each authorization issued by City Light and accepted by the Consultant(s).

The on-call contract is anticipated to be place until 2034. Engineering analyses and studies will take place on an as-needed basis. A detailed scope, schedule, and fee will be agreed upon between City Light and the engineering Consultant(s) prior to the commencement of work for any additional engineering work.

B. Solicitation Objectives

The Consultant(s) will be expected to provide a wide breadth of dam safety expertise; capability to provide high quality services within schedule and budget on short notice during rapid response situations with local presence preferred. The Consultant(s) need to have demonstrated experience in the region working on high-hazard dams and associated facilities regulated by FERC. The City expects to retain highly qualified Consultant(s) with sufficient demonstrated depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and skills to support City Light’s Dam Safety Program to achieve the following outcomes through this consultant solicitation:

• Provide FERC Part 12D Independent Consultant services for upcoming periodic inspections and/or comprehensive assessments for each of City Light-owned and/or operated dams including Potential Failure Modes Analysis (PFMA) and Risk Analysis of dams and appurtenant structures;
• Provide engineering services as needed to conduct or support inspections, studies, analyses, surveillance and monitoring, investigations, evaluations, condition assessments, root-cause analyses, etc. at City Light’s dams, powerhouses, and other related generation/transmission-related infrastructure and facilities;
• Provide engineering design services and engineering support during construction as needed at City Light’s dams, powerhouses, and other related generation/transmission-related infrastructure and facilities; and

• Provide services to support successful administration of dam safety program services and successfully complete tasks across a desired breadth of services that may include but are not limited to:
  • Technical assistance and guidance for addressing recommendations, comments, and/or concerns identified by FERC Part 12D Periodic Inspection and Comprehensive Assessments, ODSP Audits, Annual Owners / FERC Inspections, Surveillance and Monitoring activities, dam safety incidents, or in response to other requirements or comments provided by City Light, FERC or other regulatory agencies / stakeholders;
  • Owner’s Dam Safety Program (ODSP) services including ODSP audits, improvements, review and development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) consistent with industry-accepted practices, Supporting Technical Information Document (STID) Updates, and records administration such as reviewing and filing of new and legacy documents within the dam safety teams’ database and archives; and
  • Public safety, security, and emergency action planning services around dams, powerhouses, and other related generation/transmission-related infrastructure and facilities to perform evaluations, assessments, designs, updates, and exercise for emergency action plans (EAPs), public safety plans (PSPs), and security infrastructure, which may require specialized experience in physical, electrical and communication infrastructure and devices.