Camrose County is a rural municipality located in east-central Alberta. It has approximately 2,550 kilometers of local gravel roads, which will be the focus of this assignment. The road network services agriculture, land, commercial and industrial activities, and the public. The traffic volumes are generally low, however isolated areas do experience heavy loads and increased volumes due to the varying nature of the local economy. Annual maintenance is performed by way of road gravelling and dust abatement programs, shoulder pulls and gravel road rehabilitation programs.
The County requires an update to the gravel road network information. A previous assessment was completed in 2001 and was a comprehensive study of all gravel roads in the County. This study collected pertinent geometric information, categorized roads into a hierarchy (Arterial, Collector, Local Road), rated condition and relative importance, and ranked roads to establish a list of recommended improvement projects. This information has become dated and needs to be updated to reflect completed projects, changing uses and optimize operational and capital budget planning.
The County is inviting proposals from qualified consultants to complete a Road Study, and Budget Planning for the entire gravel road network.
The current annual capital budget for road reconstruction and rehabilitation is $1,500,000, with an additional $1,000,000 budgeted for maintenance in the form of gravelling, soft spot repair, drainage, and other works. It is the intention of this project to make recommendations on strategies to maximize the annual County investment on its gravel road network.
Work through this RFP should be generally limited to the following scope. Exceptions to this are where additional work is required to achieve the intended result and shall be identified clearly in the RFP submission. Other areas will be where the consultant may offer value added services, which will also be clearly outlined in the proposal submission. Additional efforts necessary as part of the project, that were not identified in the proposal submission, must first be approved by the County. To aid in this, the consultant shall submit a detailed project plan including timelines, effort, and unit rates as part of the mandatory submission requirements.
Project Goals and Tasks
1. Start-up Meeting
2. Perform a comprehensive review of the entire gravel road network.
3. A road priority rating system shall be determined. This is an empirical calculation which considers traffic type and volumes, as well as road condition appraisal.
4. Determine the current state of the gravel road network, based on proposed ranking criteria, and
identify roads for upgrades.
5. Produce a final report that details:
a. A summary of findings
b. Updated benchmark construction costs in line with recent unit rates throughout trending in the province.
c. Capital Budget Planning Needs in line with the following:
i. Any immediate needs that should be addressed by the municipality, including estimated costs associated with those improvements.
ii. Recommended annual capital budget amount to maximize County investment in its’ gravel road network with reasoning.
iii. 15-year capital budget with specific road projects identified, and estimated costs for those improvements. Rationale included as to why the capital plan has identified these roads.
d. Operational Budget Planning Needs in line with the following
i. Recommendations for operational budget amendments to maximize the County’s investment in its’ gravel road network.
ii. Recommendations on typical best practices for maintenance activities, including but not limited to, re-gravelling, culvert replacement, heavy duty maintenance activities, etc.
e. Road System Classification as per Alberta Transportation geometric Design Guidelines.
6. Produce a digital shapefile based off the segmentation provided by the County with above attribute information attached, as specified in the proposal submission. This information shall be in the format required by the Camrose County GIS department. (ESRI shapefile/geodatabase).
