Agriculture and Irrigation - Request for Proposal - ENGINEERING REVIEW OF THE DRAINAGE INFRASTRUCTURE IN NINE DRAINAGE DISTRICTS

Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation requires the services of an engineering consultant to perform an engineering review and assessment of the water infrastructure in the nine drainage districts of Alberta. The services to be provided shall include the following for each of the drainage districts: 1. Provide a historic overview of the district and its formation and confirm the legal boundaries and the total area of the district. 2. Develop detailed drainage layout plans showing all water ditches (with flow directions) and all existing surface water structures, including culverts, bridges, dikes, gates, staff gauges, etc. a. Review previous studies, construction records, technical reports, design drawings, as-built drawings, rehabilitation records, surveys, etc. It is important to note that most of these documents are in paper format with limited electronic versions available in AGI’s Water Infrastructure and Operations branch office in Camrose. b. Conduct site visits to identify and confirm the structure locations and types, and to identify any discrepancy in location and type with existing records if available. Give consideration to private land access in the project areas during all phases of the project. The consultant should arrange for at least one site visit for each district, ensuring that all visits are completed within a total maximum of 10 days for all the districts. 3. Develop a naming system for the drains, ditches, and laterals in accordance with the existing names from records. If no names exist or if there are discrepancies between existing records, create a new naming system for the detailed drainage layout plans developed. 4. Lead pre-inspection (kick-off) sessions with the drainage district’s board members, with input from AGI. The objectives of the kick-off sessions are: a. Ensure that the drainage district board members are aware of the study, its objectives, timeline, and private land access requirements if any. b. Seek inputs on sources of information for maintenance history, previous inspection or rehabilitation records, minor and major infrastructure issues, and plans for minor or major upgrades to the district’s water structures and ditches. Include any additional information deemed necessary by the consultant. c. Collect anecdotal information on past drainage challenges and drainage bottlenecks. The consultant should arrange for no more than one session with each drainage district. Combined sessions of nearby districts are preferred to reduce costs. AGI can provide government facilities to host sessions in Camrose for Holden, Big Hay Lake, Hay Lakes, Daysland, and Bear Hills Lake districts, in Dickson for Cygnet and Dickson districts, and in Edmonton for Cameron and Manawan districts. 5. Perform an engineering review and condition assessment of the following: a. All surface water structures. This includes culverts, gates, dikes, protection works (if any), staff gauges, and field crossings of concerns identified during the pre-inspection sessions. b. All the major ditches within a 5 to 10-meter range upstream and downstream of structures, and all those of concern identified during the pre-inspection sessions. c. Lateral ditches of concern identified during the pre-inspection sessions. d. The district’s outlet. Engineering review must identify any deficiencies that may prevent the structure from performing its original function. Additionally, it should assess the remaining service life of the structure and determine rehabilitation needs, upgrades, or maintenance requirements. 6. Recommend a set of actions for maintenance, rehabilitation, upgrade, replacement, or expansion to the existing water structures to restore them to their intended function, ensuring safe and efficient drainage. Prioritize the recommendations for each district. 7. Send a draft prioritized set of actions (i.e., maintenance, rehabilitation, upgrade, replacement, or expansion) to AGI for inputs from district’s board members. After receiving follow-up from AGI, compare the follow-up set of actions to the recommended actions from scope item #6. 8. Provide a level “A” cost estimate and preliminary timeline for proposed set of actions. Cost estimate definitions are according to the Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors “Engineering Consultant Guidelines for Highway, Bridge and Water Projects, Volume 1 – Planning, Preliminary Engineering, Design and Tender”. 9. From the items in the scope above, create an inventory/database of all the water structures in the drainage district. The inventory/database shall include the following attributes: a. Structure name, type, geographic location, and year of construction (if available). b. Engineering review highlights. c. Expected remaining service lifetime. d. Blockage condition, if any. e. Record of maintenance and/or rehabilitation: type and reason of work performed, start date, completion date, cost of construction, source of funding, responsible consultant if any, etc. f. Any future planned maintenance, rehabilitation, or upgrade. g. Alberta Transportation File Number for the structure as applicable. h. Structure ownership and cost sharing information. i. District outlet type, location, and condition. j. Other information deemed necessary by the consultant. Complete engineering services are required, and any items not specifically mentioned required to satisfactorily complete the project shall be included in the Proposal. The output of this project will serve as the foundation for future subsequent phases of engineering services for the nine drainage districts. The consultant shall be responsible for any regulatory approvals required to complete the work. All assessments shall be in compliance with the regulatory requirements (i.e., Water Act, Water (Ministerial) Regulation (AR 205/1998 with amendments up to AR 253/2018) – Part 6, Alberta Dam and Canal Safety Directive (2018)), Drainage Districts Act and its supporting regulations, best engineering practices, and with other engineering and common industry standards for similar projects.