In 2014, the Town was awarded a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (“FDOT”) through the Local Agency Program in the amount of $200,000 with a Town match of $121,000 for a greenway trail along the east side of Miami Lakeway North/South between Miami Lakes K-8 and Miami Lakes Middle Schools. FDOT awarded an additional $18,073 in 2017 for the design of the project and the performance of a bat survey, which was completed. The design included a meandering trail for bicyclists and pedestrians with high emphasis crosswalks and bollards to provide additional caution and limit access to motorized vehicles. Bidding for this project was scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2018.

The Work consists of furnishing all labor, materials, supplies, tools, equipment, supervision and services necessary for the construction of the shared use path and signal modification at the project location, the eastside of Miami Lakeway Drive North/South, between NW 67th Avenue to NW 64th Avenue.

Work includes, but is not limited to, removal of concrete sidewalk and asphalt path, construction of concrete and asphalt shared use paths, excavation, embankment, regulatory signing and pavement markings, and modification of traffic signal equipment as required in the project plans. The Work includes furnishing, installing, constructing, delivery, of a complete project with the required maintenance of traffic devices, and quality assurance testing as applicable to the project.

The Town issued Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) 2018-08 for the Safe Routes to School Construction on November 15, 2017. The ITB was advertised in the Miami Daily Business Review, and posted to DemandStar, Public Purchase, and the bulletin board in the Government Center Lobby. Star Paving was found to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and was awarded the contract for this project. Shortly after award, the Town had difficulties with the company as it was unable to comply with the bonding requirements provided for in the contract. The Town explored all available options with the contractor to obtain other securities for the project without success before rescinding the contract award.

The Town then re-issued ITB 2018-08R SRTS Miami Lakes Elementary School Project on September 7, 2018. The ITB was advertised in the Miami Daily Business Review, and posted to DemandStar, Public Purchase, and the bulletin board in the Government Center Lobby.

To qualify for award, prospective Bidders were required to:
1. Possess a current certified license from the State of Florida as a General Contractor, or a Certificate of Competency from the Miami-Dade County's Construction Trades Qualifying Board as either a General Engineering Contractor or a Specialty Engineering Contractor;
2. Have completed a minimum of three (3) projects of similar size, scope and complexity in the last five (5) years, where the value of each project exceeds $450,000; and
3. Be an FDOT pre-qualified contractor for work types 39, Traffic Signals, and 40, other work classes; and
4. Be capable of self-performing forty percent (40%) of the primary physical construction Work.

On the date of the bid opening, October 5, 2018, the Town received one (1) bid from the following Bidder:
1. Florida Engineering and Development, Corp. (“Florida Engineering”) - $890,445.05

Procurement performed a due diligence review of the bid for responsiveness and found that the review of Florida Engineering's bid did not reveal any material defects in the bid, nor in Florida Engineering's qualifications. Florida Engineering has been in business for 15 years, possesses a certificate of competency from Miami-Dade County's Construction Trades Qualifying Board for General Engineering, and provided references for three (3) similar projects completed in the last five (5) years. According to their bid, Florida Engineering will also be performing 60% of the work with its own forces. Additionally, Procurement did not find any issues with Florida Engineering's licenses or litigation history that would indicate it was unable to perform the work.

Florida Engineering is also a pre-qualified FDOT contractor for drainage, fencing, grading, grassing, seeding and sodding, roadway signing, sidewalk, and water main work types. The company was not pre-qualified by FDOT for traffic signals but does have the expertise in-house to complete this type of work. Based on the minimal complexity of the signalization work, staff is comfortable waiving the pre-qualification requirement for the traffic signal work type.

Before the first solicitation, the Town had $321,500 available for construction ($200,000 of FDOT funding and $121,500 of Town-matched funds). The first solicitation yielded three bids of (1) $563,984.12, (2) $744,136.04, and (3) $999,248.25. Based on the lowest bid amount, the Town requested additional funds from FDOT bring the total available funds for construction to $563,984.

Since the new bid is over the available $563,984, the Town issued a new request to FDOT for an additional $200,000 in exchange for increasing the Town's matched funds by $126,461.05. The Town received confirmation on January 28, 2019 that FDOT would honor this request, making the new amount available for construction $890,445.05 ($642,484 of FDOT funding and $247,961.05 of Town-matched funds). Funds for the Town's increased match amount would be allocated from the Capital Projects Fund under the CIP Reserve for Transportation Projects, Windmill Gate surplus, and the 59^th Avenue Extension Project line items.