SRF Area P-12 Improvements

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850)872-3000 | panamacity.gov
Invitation to Bid (ITB) No. PC26-037
SRF Area P-12 Improvements
Pre-Bid Meeting Minutes
October 21, 2026
City of Panama City, FL Representatives
Cale Madden, Principle Project Manager, Mott MacDonald
Johnnie Gallegos, Bid Specialist, Purchasing Division
Agenda
* Project Description
* Questions
* Bid Solicitation Timeline
Cale Madden presented the project following the Mott MacDonald provided agenda,
attached.
Project Description. The project involves roughly 16,000 feet of road, 15,000 feet of
water line. The 4700 feet of sewer line will likely get a change to sewer lining, which will
be in addition to the 7731 [linear feet of sewer lining]. The road length may change
somewhat.
There are some additional fundamental changes that I will cover but the quantities will
change.
Highlights of the Specifications.
1. Bids will be received by the city via the Bonfire Portal up until Friday, November 6th
at 11:00 AM (CT). We are going to do our best to hold that and we may issue an
extension, but do not count on it. Plan on the 6th [of November] and understand that
if we absolutely have to, we will, but it will be no more than a week.
2. The City strongly recommends that bidders be on the plan holders list. Documents are
available online, but the City pushes out addenda and other documentation items and
you need to be on the bidders list to do that. And the way you make sure you're on
the bidders list is e-mail purchasing at panamacity.gov. Again, make sure you own the
1

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
bidders list for this project specifically. If you haven't downloaded the bid documents
e-mail Purchasing and they will make sure that you receive those.
3. Look over the reference documents carefully. This is SRF project. There are
conditions in the front-end documents that must be followed and entering a bid into
the system means that you accept those conditions.
4. Submit all questions and or advise to purchasing@panamacity.gov via e-mail. We will
answer questions at the end of this agenda, however only responses in writing shall
be considered. Additionally, you should not approach engineers or anyone from Public
Works to discuss potential questions. Everything should route through Purchasing.
Questions will be answered in addenda and again that will be pushed out on the
bidders list.
5. All utilities shall remain in service during the construction period. B. The road is broken
into both reconstruction and resurfacing based on the type of construction sewer lining
which we'll get into in a couple of minutes will possibly change and then quantities will
be broken into schedules by street. I will stop right there and talk about item 5. E. and
item 9 concurrently.
So it's the city's intent to break this project into approximately 12 areas and a basis of
bid will be on each area independently. So there will not be necessary could be one
bidder that is successful, it could be 12 bidders or any combination of them.
You will not have to bid each schedule. You get to pick the schedule you want to bid
be broken down by street. All of the work would be completed concurrently and
executed as such.
It will be paving, stormwater, if applicable, sanitary and water basically on a street by
street basis.
6. Item number six and item number seven go hand-in-hand. This is a high-priority
project for the city anticipation that will move very fast, and award is contingent on
approval by the Commission, contingent on successful bid document submission.
But the intent is to be under construction and under award the first of the year.
Some of you that have worked in the SRF program understand that this is a little bit
accelerated.
7. Contract time. We will provide updates in the addenda [the contract time] is going to
change. It's not going to be 365, hence the reason for breaking it into multiple areas.
2

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
The city's intent is to complete parallel construction so that that number will be coming
down should the revised completion time not be reached.
8. Liquidated damages will be $1000 per day, and that ramps up to $2000 per day for
the final payment.
9. I want to make sure this is clear, carefully discussed and identified. The basis of award
will be on a per schedule basis for that schedule's total value. They will be broken
down into unit items under those schedules, but that will be the basis of comparison.
Whoever is lowest on total per schedule will be awarded that the job.
So you're talking about 15 almost 16,000 feet of pipe and roads. So you can imagine
that broke down into a little over 1000 feet per section.
And you can bet on as many schedules as you wish, or as few as you wish. However,
if you were to receive a word for multiple schedules, you will be expected to complete
those concurrently, not consecutively.
10. FDEP does not allow local preference.
11. SRF documents are included. Most of you have done work for SRF in the past. You
know that there's special conditions in there and agreement as well as Davis Bacon
considerations and other items.
12. Prevailing wage as mentioned will be enforced along with certified payrolls.
13. Yes, AIS is required on the project. We get this question at least four times on every
bid.
14. A project sign will be required. Each individual section will require a project sign of the
12. If you happen to be successful on multiple sections, you would only be required to
use one sign per contractor.
15. Minority and women owned business compliance letter is in the bid package. There is
not a set participation only that is being considered.
16. Contractors required to perform bypass and dewatering activities that include
dewatering for groundwater and bypassing for sewer. The City will not bypass, do any
cleaning or other items needed to perform sewer work and or construction work.
17. Tax Savings Agreement is enforced on the project. For those that do not know, this is
an aggregate amount of $5,000 or more. The City issues the PO, they take the tax
savings as a result of it. The contractor remains in control of the of the contract.
So the contractor authorizes the city upon receipt of the material to pay the invoice.
3

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850)872-3000 | panamacity.gov
Really the thing that can be asked sometimes is all tax should be included in the bid
item number
18. Request for approved equal shall be submitted to the Purchasing Department and that
should be within 15 days issuance of advertisement for bid. So in other words, if you're
intending to submit an approved equal that that's pretty much now.
Highlights of the Plans.
1. Demolition or abandonment of existing sanitary manholes, storm water pipe and other
structures are on the plans.
2. Area P-12. Whether it's lining or sewer replacement, all of the bypassing requirements
or the responsibility of the contractor, not the city and all of that should be included in
the contractor's bid price.
3. There will be multiple coordination efforts here besides P11, which will be likely
starting at the same time P12, there will be parallel efforts going on with P-12 as well
with multiple schedules. So coordination between the contractors, which likely will be
multiple, and the City of Panama City will be required.
4. Project area is mainly surrounded by residential properties. Driveway access has to
be maintained during the entirety of the project.
5. All millings generated shall be delivered to the City at the Parcel ID listed, which is
the City's property north of 11th St.
6. MOT plans need to be submitted and approved prior to construction.
We will amend likely and clarify the second statement. No more than one block may
be disturbed at a time unless approval is received.
What that details is anyone contractor does not need to open up the entire work zone
of their area without restoration. We understand that multiple contractors will be
opening up more than one aggregate block of work. However, the intent is to keep
contractors ongoing with restoration efforts.
As discussed, traffic in and out of residential properties shall be maintained, whether
temporary or permanent.
Item B. The City is not responsible for lay down areas. Contractors responsible for lay
down areas how they may choose.
4

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
7. Any pavement markings or traffic control devices. Devices that are removed,
destroyed or demolished during construction shall be replaced to the original
condition, whether or not they're indicated on the plans or not.
8. New pavement overlay. There's various areas for there and there's demonstrated on
the plans.
9. The very small area of storm water pipe and structure replacement that will be as a
separate line out of in the SRF bid schedule. If you happen to be bidding on that
area, just make sure that you're aware of all the issues.
10. As mentioned in the intro, we're likely to take the existing sewer replacement and
change that into CIPP. Also, there is quantity identified in the plans for CIPP as well
and that includes cleaning TV point repairs if needed and clearing and grubbing to
access that works on the city would not be doing any of that as part of the project.
We will have point repair cost built into it to utilize during the construction process.
Also note you know right away conditions are identified on the plans. Make sure that
as a contractor you can access the area as required to do CIPP lining. In our alternate
schedules in on the plans there are areas identified for sewer replacement. We will be
wholesale converting those to CIPP.
So inevitably the question gets asked is what areas are CIPP? If you see it on the
plans as a manhole or a section to be replaced, it will be converted as is to CIPP.
11. Alternate bid schedule will include lining of existing sewer pipe and manholes. We
may add some language about replacement of laterals if the city sees benefit in that.
As with any trenchless method, there will be differences in quantities for roadway work
based on relining versus replacing the pipe. But again, those will be on a schedule-
by-schedule basis. We are working as diligently as possible to get that breakdown and
we should have it in the next two to four days or so.
So when you get the agenda for this, we should be issuing your revised bid tab.
And if you have any questions, now is the time to ask them. But as previously stated, all
questions outside of this environment should be submitted by e-mail.
5

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
Discussion and Questions Received from Attending Contractors.
1. Contractor: So you plan on changing the entire bid form if you're doing it by section.
When you plan on having that to us, because I mean you would be only giving us two
weeks to bid this whole thing with I feel like that's probably not enough time. You might
consider pushing back the bid date on that.
And then also my question is are these quantities that you have in here, are these all
going to change completely?
Cale Madden: The total quantities don't change.
Contractor: Because there are so many quantities that are so wrong. And I know on the
last project y'all said that you would do it by infield verification or whatever. I feel like that's
bogus because you're not comparing apples to apples. You have a lump sum bid, so
people are going to bid it completely different. So I think it should be more fair if you give
us the accurate quantities.
Cale Madden: So this is a unit cost job, and the comparison is on the total, yes.
Contractor: And so people are not comparing it apples to apples. I mean you can be
laying if you're doing it off of a unit cost. I mean, one street, you might have sewer pipe
that's I know you're lining it all, but just say on the sewer pipe, you might have it 10 feet
deep versus 3 feet deep. Those are completely different quantities. So people are going
to do it completely different on how they're bidding stuff. It's going to cost the city more
money in the end, I feel like. So I feel like you should have the quantities as accurate as
possible.
Cale Madden: There are some nuances with that. We there are some nuances of that
we completely understand. We will ask the Public Works about possibly extending the
bid. However, I would not expect any more than a seven days extension. On the revised
bid schedule, they will be listed as street and so forth. So you can identify that. But
understand again that this is a unit cost job.
Contractor: Awarded off of a lump sum.
Cale Madden: It is the basis of awards. So that means how we compare it.
Contractor: Y'all are the CEI, so y'all should be giving us the quantities to bid the job.
I mean, the city's paying y'all to do that so I feel like it should be accurate. I mean, I don't
just bid a job and go, oh, it's 75% accurate. You got to be 100% on it.
Cale Madden: Noted. But again, you understand it's the bid unit construction job, right?
6

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
Contractor: Yes. Thank you.
2. Contractor: I know we're splitting this whole thing up, is this something we can control?
Because that's going to be a logistics nightmare if we have concurrent contractors doing
all this stuff at the same time.
Cale Madden: When you say control, what do you mean?
Contractor: Well, is the city really sure they want to do that? We are going to have a
contractor on every road going at the same time?
Cale Madden: I'm going to say it carefully. I think the other option is just to do away with
the project.
Contractor: So well, I understand that.
Cale Madden: I mean, if y'all don't want to do the work, we certainly support that as well.
Contractor: I'm not saying we want to get rid of it, but I'm just wondering if the city's
prepared for the fact that if you are a bunch of contractors on a grid system area, it's
possible your residents are going to get like really [upset].
Cale Madden: We've had probably no, no less than 1/2 a dozen meetings about the
process. And this is a process that is required due to SRF. It's not ideal. You see that you
see the documents as complete because that was the city's intent right is to award it to
one contractor. However, the state has other thoughts on that. And so they as of now the
best-case scenario is award of schedules.
Contractor: So well, fair enough.
Cale Madden: I mean, we certainly would rather and the city has a lot of skiing in the
game as well because they're going to and you know, we know it's going to be difficult,
right.
3. Contractor: So on the proposed plans, demo plans, roadway plans, are we all the
driveways? It shows every driveway getting proposed concrete. Are we replacing every
single driveway or only the ones that are going to be affected by construction?
Cale Madden: Good question. So the ones that are affected by construction. So if you
rely on it as opposed to replacing the sewer and there's no need to replace the driveway,
then we won't be replacing that.
7

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850)872-3000 | panamacity.gov
4. Contractor: I just want to kind of piggyback what was mentioned earlier. I get that it
may be SRF is putting a thumb on that, but the realistic of the MOT process, I mean you're
talking about a huge congestion problem for the residents in that area that I don't know
that SRF cares about, whereas the city probably does. My thoughts are that the city
probably needs to, I don't want to say fight that, but discuss that a lot more with SRF
because you were talking about a logistics nightmare.
It's one thing to have one contractor trying to control an MOT and you see how that's
working down in Panama City right now with the multiple projects under different
contractors, but good size projects. Then you split this into smaller projects and shutting
down multiple roads. You're very well limiting access for these individuals and it's going
to be a nightmare for the city.
I mean, the contractors probably don't, I mean, we care. We want to win the job as a
whole, but if we win partial, the residents are going to be a city problem, not a contractor
problem. And the city I think needs to think long and hard about that because this is a big
area and it could be a nightmare form from a logistics and a customer complaint issue.
And then secondly, if you are splitting up every street like proposed, I'm assuming that
the sheet, the new bid sheet will have MOT testing, general requirements, etcetera on
every single street. Is that the plan?
Cale Madden: Yes, sir. To your point and again, don't shoot the messenger because it's
not our wish nor our desire, but it's likely that the timing for this construction activity will
be limited to 90 days unless we can get a variance for that. So you will see that in the bid
document. That's the whole reason for breaking it up. And to your point about MOT and
so forth, you know 90 days is better than doing it for 365 days. So that is the challenge
that the team was given.
Contractor: And I, I agree it's not your decision to make. But I would disagree from a
residence standpoint that 90 days with no access to your house is not necessarily better
than 365, but only 30 days no access to your house, you know, out of that year that that
would be from. I'm just speaking from a residence standpoint, not a contractor
standpoint.
Cale Madden: To be to be fair for all of the bidders understand that this is being discussed
at the highest levels of the city. And you know there was the discussion whether to pull
this project entirely or press it forward. And the decision currently is to leave it on as he
is with the split schedules. So the city's doing everything in there power to rectify that with
8

City of Panama City, Florida
501 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 872-3000 | panamacity.gov
the state don't know the answer currently and that's why that bid process is moving
forward as is. We hope to issue some more guidance. As the gentleman said, time is
critical for bidding and so forth.
We understand the frustration as well. All of these, all of these comments will be taken
back to the city and discussed internally and we should have some guidance in the next
couple of days. But as it stands now, the city's position is to bid it as independent
schedules.
Contractor: Is there an issue with the contractor winning all segments?
Cale Madden: No, sir. The only thing is you know, the construction period is 90 days.
Thank you for your questions. If you have additional questions, please e-mail those to
purchasing@panamacity.gov and they will be answered via an addendum that will be
emailed to the plan holders and posted on the city's web page and on the Bonfire Portal.
Thank you so much for attending.
End of Pre-Bid Meeting.
9