Agency TRANSPORTATION DEPT

Contractor Alfred Benesch & Company

SWIFT Contract Number 70519

Project Name TH24 Bridge in Clearwater / VE Study

Project Number (if applicable) 4775

Summarize purpose of the contract, including why it was necessary: MnDOT requires a VE study to be conducted on projects that are above a TPCE threshold of $20M. These projects meet that cost threshold.

Project Duration

Start Date Fri, 10/25/2013 - 00:00

Original end date Mon, 06/30/2014 - 00:00

Actual end date Wed, 05/14/2014 - 00:00

Did project finish on time? Yes

Total billable hours utilized (if applicable) {Empty}

Contract Amounts

Original contract: $40873.08

Amendments $0

Contract total $40873.08

Did project finish within budget? Yes

What was the funding source? TH

Is this a sole source contract? No

If this was a single source contract, explain why the agency determined there was only a single source for the services (if applicable) {Empty}

Evaluator Name Anjani Milkert

Evaluator Email Address minnie.milkert@state.mn.us

Evaluate the contractor's timeliness mixed

Evaluate the contractor's quality mixed

Evaluate the contractor's cost similar to other vendors

Evaluate the contractor's overall performance A VE study is a short duration process that requires the team to go from idea generation on day one to specific non-competing recommendations by the last day. The primary task for the team lead is to focus the team to the best alternatives so that recommendations are mutually exclusive as required by FHWA.

Kasi and the VE team, both from Benesch and MnDOT, put in a good effort, however, I felt that the team got bogged down in more detail than was necessary; especially for this project, which was too close to turn in to allow for significant changes.

One of the team members commented that Benesch did not arrive with a clean slate. They brought solutions that worked well on other projects and tried to use them on this one. That didn’t seem to work very well.

Completing the report took too long. The study was completed on Dec. 20, 2013, but the report took until March, 2014 to complete. Typically one month is appropriate to finalize a report. This study had holidays mixed in, so 6 weeks would have been acceptable. To be fair, the District was also slow in responding.

Benesch is to be commended for their willingness to fix the report when asked and for responding to specific questions from the final presentation.

Would you engage the contractor's services again? Yes

Describe any negative action taken during the duration of this contract (i.e., termination, pursuit of suspension, etc.): {Empty}

Please rate the overall experience with the contractor 3 - neutral