Shade Tree Pruning Services

REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS FOR STANDING OFFER AGREEMENT

SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor will provide all qualified personnel, materials, tools, and equipment required to prune trees. It is required that the Contractor provide the necessary equipment and crews in combination as set out in Section B-2 of Schedule B to complete the tree pruning services.

Pruning services will include the pruning of trees on City streets, including boulevards, medians, islands and frontage road landscape areas that are located on residential, collector and arterial roads. Pruning services may also include pruning trees in various parks throughout the City.

The City will provide a list in MS Excel, organized geographically, of tree locations requiring tree pruning. Using the provided excel spread sheets and COSMOS at http://cosmos.surrey.ca, the Contractor may be required as part the program to create main road and park maps to indicate specific tree locations. Trees located in residential subdivisions can be located without maps. The Contractor can refer to the MS Excel spread sheet tree list provided by the City which lists each tree by specific residential address.

The City schedules the pruning of its street and park trees based on the age of the tree. Street trees are pruned when they are three (3), six (6), nine (9), and fourteen (14) years old and every five (5) years thereafter. Park trees are pruned when they are four (4), eight (8), twelve (12), and nineteen (19) years old and every ten (10) years thereafter.

The City’s pruning schedule requires approximately 22,000-28,000 street trees to be pruned every year. This work will be dispersed between multiple contractors.

Pruning work may not occur:
(a) During leaf emergence, typically early spring.
(b) When tree is in flower
(c) Before July 31st for Prunus ssp. varieties

Occasionally the City is required to respond to a pruning request in a timely fashion. When required, the Contractor should be prepared to begin work of an urgent nature the next day upon receiving notification of such work by the City.

Depending on species and age, trees are pruned with aerial lift truck crews, spurless climbing crews, or ground-based crews with approved pruning ladders.

To ensure a consistent delivery of the City’s pruning objectives, the Contractor may be required to have all pruning crew leads attend a half day pruning workshop held and paid by the City, excluding equipment charge.

The Contractor must ensure that every crew lead has a cellular phone with a data plan to:
(a) Download and utilize the City of Surrey Service Request application;
(b) Download and utilize the City of Surrey COSMOS mapping application
(c) Send and receive pictures;
(d) Report any hazards requiring immediate attention; and
(e) Notify City staff before large impactful pruning cuts are made.

The Contractor is required, once pruning is complete for each listed Residential –Single Family tree, to deliver an informational pruning door hanger that is provided by the City.

The Contractor will ensure that lower tree base protectors or arbor guards are not girdling the tree trunk and are adjusted accordingly. Broken arbor guards will be collected and discarded. Arbor guards in working condition will be returned to the City for reuse.

The Contractor is expected to provide brief information on the pruning work in a courteous and professional manner to any resident that makes inquiries while the Contractor is on site. If a resident is requesting more information, please ask the resident to call in a service request to the City’s Parks Call Centre at 604-501-5050 and a City arborist will follow-up. The Contractor shall not give out City of Surrey employee phone numbers to the public.

Although the work is invoiced on an hourly rate basis, the City has determined the average cost to prune trees by age category. This information, in combination with close monitoring of the Contractor’s crews, is used to evaluate the Contractor’s productivity and efficiency. If it is found that the services are not provided cost effectively, the contract will be reviewed and may result in termination.

ADDENDA

If the City determines that an amendment is required to this RFA-SOA, the City Representative will issue a written addendum by posting it on the BC Bid website at www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca (the “BC Bid Website”) and the City website at www.surrey.ca (the “City Website”) that will form part of this RFA-SOA. It is the responsibility of Applicants to check the BC Bid Website and the City Website for addenda. The only way this RFA-SOA may be added to, or amended in any way, is by a formal written addendum. No other communication, whether written or oral, from any person will affect or modify the terms of this RFA-SOA or may be relied upon by any Applicant. By delivery of an Application, Applicant is deemed to have received, accepted and understood the entire RFA-SOA including, any and all addenda.

All inquiries related to this RFA-SOA should be directed in writing to purchasing@surrey.ca