Alyx Chandler
Pictured is the Vestavia Hills work session on June 18.
City Manager Jeff Downes began the June 18 Vestavia Hills City Council work session by saying that he has been in talks with Ken Upchurch of TCU Consulting Services and his staff for several weeks about the Community Spaces and Infrastructure Plan.
Upchurch then went over design time tracks, budgets and budget tracking, with the goal to get the council to “move forward in an expeditious manner” on approval for professional services for the next phase of the community spaces plan.
Upchurch said they have met with all the designers and engineers on a weekly basis and set a goal of having all designs complete within 9 months of their early May start date.
“Construction prices have been escalating at a very rapid pace. Every one of these rapid escalations we’ve seen may begin to flatten off after a period of time. We think we’re beginning to see some flattening of that curve, particularly as it relates to the first order and the second order of next year. So we would like to have all of our designs complete,” Upchurch said, so the different parts of the community spaces project to move forward concurrently.
In order to meet timelines, he said, they need to issue purchase orders quickly for engineering work such as surveying and geo-technical surveys.
“We cannot wait on those pieces,” he said.
Although Williams Blackstock is the global architect, Upchurch said they have separate consulting engineer teams with each of their projects, so that they “don’t have all of their eggs in one basket,” which might be a concern to the council.
“If one group begins to fall behind, it’s not going to affect the entire program," he said.
Upchurch shared the pre-budget, initial budget templates and a deeper dive into the numbers through spreadsheets of the professional fees, all of which the council will see on a regular basis during monthly reports. The total community spaces program budget is $58.1 million, of which TCU manages just under $44 million. The budget for professional fees is $4.8 million.
TCU Consulting currently plans to issue the first report to the council in July, he said.
Upchurch said the reports added the Crosshaven road project and a grant-funded project at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex, which TCU Consulting will manage as a part of their overall engagement with the city.
Downes noted the council may be concerned about rushing specifics of the projects.
“Ultimately, that comes in through your construction documents, your bid process and your approval of the bid,” Downes said. “And we are not asking for any approval on the construction costs or any contingency, that’s later when there’s been an opportunity to collaborate and bring the ideas forward to you.
"All we’re asking for is to not have to have a start and a stop every time we have to get the survey crew out to survey … or have a civil engineer look at that particular component of a project.”
When Mayor Ashley Curry asked how TCU Consulting makes sure contractors working on the project are held accountable to the schedule, Upchurch said they meet with them each week, “and at most, they slip a week.” Upchurch said TCU uses a management technique to ensure everyone involved is very visibly accountable. In the management software tool they use, if someone is behind, it shows up as red for everyone in the project to see, Upchurch said.
“Nobody likes to be red,” Upchurch said.
Upchurch added that they are pushing very hard for work on Wald Park first.
Councilwoman Kimberly Cook had previously questioned operations costs, Downes said.
Normal engagement with the community center should remain free, Downes said, adding that he didn't think it’d be a major issue, but there is the possibility of an "incremental" increase in the budget. They could discuss enhanced programming later on, he said.
Downes asked for the council’s authority to expedite the program for the professional services budget, which does not require bids as long as they're within the budget lines. The first approval would be at the next council meeting, Downs said.
“We have a number of projects that we are real anxious about getting started, with Crosshaven being one of them,” Downes said.
Curry said he would put the approval of professional services budget as an unanimous consent item for the upcoming council meeting. A representative of TCU Consulting Services will be present to answer questions, per the mayor's request.
According to the Vestavia Hills City website, the next council meeting is on June 25. Go to http://vhal.org/agendas-and-agenda-packets/ for more information.