TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an amendment to Contract No. 33849 with Utility Partners of America, LLC, of Greenville, SC, to increase the contract amount by $1,688,000, for a revised total amount not to exceed $8,292,749, for the retrofit and/or replacement of existing Long Beach Gas and Oil gas meters to support the Advanced Metering Infrastructure project. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
On June 10, 2014, the City Council awarded a contract to Utility Partners of America, LLC (UPA), in an amount not to exceed $6,604,749, for the period of February 1, 2015 through December 31, 2017, to retrofit and/or replace existing LBGO gas meters to support the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project that was authorized by City Council on the same date. The implementation of AMI included the installation and/or retrofit of approximately 150,000 gas meters throughout the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill to new “smart” meters to electronically read customers’ meters, thereby eliminating the need for a manual meter reading contract.
Since the contract was executed in 2015, LBGO and UPA staff have encountered field conditions requiring meter infrastructure enhancements beyond the AMI installation contract scope of work. The original contract called for the like-for-like exchange or retrofit of the current gas meters in the field, but did not include any rebuild work necessary to correct any potential meter infrastructure irregularities. LBGO does not have the resources to perform this work within the project timeline and is, therefore, requesting additional funding for UPA to complete the work on a time and material basis.
The additional field work is identified as:
· Meter Box - approximately 40 percent of the gas meters are housed in meter boxes. Many of these meter boxes were installed when the home was first built or at the request of the homeowner. The new smart point or meter may cause an obstruction that prevents th...
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