DEP's Bowery Bay Grit Job Says 3 HP in the Spec and 5 HP on the Drawing

The spec book for the city's Bowery Bay grit job says each new grit washer runs on a 3 HP motor. Drawing E-04 in the same contract book says, "NEW GRIT WASHER IS RATED 5HP." Now here's why you care about two horsepower. The city's standard contract says when the drawings and the specs don't agree, you're deemed to have priced the most expensive way, unless you asked and got a written answer before you bid.

So ask. On this job, questions go one place: the Discussion with Buyer forum in PASSPort, the city's bidding portal. The pre-bid conference is Monday, October 5 at 10:00 AM on Microsoft Teams. It isn't mandatory. Bids are due in PASSPort before 10 AM on Wednesday, October 28.

“On a job where the spec and the drawing can't agree on the motor, the cheapest thing you'll buy all month is a written answer.”

The job is contract BB-236 from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Wastewater Treatment. You're replacing the cyclone degritters and grit washers at the Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, 43-01 Berrian Boulevard in Astoria, Queens. That's the equipment that separates the grit, then washes and dewaters it. The scope is four new systems. Each one is two cyclone degritters, one grit washer, a motor, a monitoring panel tied back to the plant's motor control center room, and the conduit and wire. That's eight cyclones and four grit washers out, and the same going in.

You're bidding six lump sums and one allowance. Mobilization. Demolition. Installation. Electrical. Gas monitoring. Demobilization. No unit prices and no alternates. Mobilization is capped at 6% of the bid and demobilization at 1%, and if you go over, the extra gets moved into your demolition line. The allowance covers hazardous material nobody saw coming, paid on time and material. The form prints it as 100000 and tells you to enter 1 as your bid value. No agency estimate is printed anywhere in the bid documents.

Look at that fifth line. Gas monitoring gets its own price. Three of the electrical drawings mark the entire area Class 1 Division 1, the electrical code's label for a space where flammable gas can be present. The spec wants a calibrated four-gas meter running the whole time, readings logged every 15 minutes, and a daily log handed to the resident engineer, even where the plant's own fixed gas detection is in service. That takes a meter and people trained to run it, and DEP has to approve them first.

Here's the line that decides who can bid this as the prime. Schedule A caps subcontracts at 40% of the contract price unless the Commissioner signs off on more in writing. Put another way, no more than 40 cents of every contract dollar can go out in subcontracts. You still have to name your plumbing, HVAC and electrical subs when you bid, with the agreed dollar amount for each, or put in a signed statement that you're doing that work with your own forces. Leave that form out and the bid is non-responsive. All electrical work has to be done by a New York City licensed electrician.

The spec doesn't name a manufacturer for the cyclones or the grit washers. It does tell you what it won't take. Shaftless spirals are out. Gear-type speed reducers are out. Cable-type lifts are out. What it wants is a 316L stainless steel tank with a 30-inch screw that can move 5 tons of grit an hour. On the electrical side, the existing motor control center is Square D. The conduit is PVC-coated rigid steel nearly everywhere, with Robroy, OCAL and Calbond named or approved equal.

One more thing to ask about. The spec lists electrical drawings E-01 through E-12. The title blocks on those sheets count to 11. The bound set stops at E-10, and the electrical sheets are dated October 2018.

You get 618 consecutive calendar days to substantial completion. Miss it and it's $850 a day. There's another $500 a day if your progress schedule is late, and $500 for every shop drawing resubmittal after the third rejection. Normal hours are Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM, with no extra pay for evenings, weekends or holidays. The plant stays running the whole time. The city doesn't take title until the equipment passes a 24-hour run test and then two weeks in the hands of DEP's own operators.

This is a PLA job. That's a project labor agreement, one union deal that binds the prime and every sub. It's the 2025 citywide agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York locals. The low bidder signs a letter of assent before award, and every sub signs one before it starts work. The bid package sets a community hiring goal: best efforts to have at least 30% of labor hours worked by residence-based community hires, with at least 30% of those hours worked by apprentices.

The bid booklet doesn't print the M/WBE goal percentages. It says the numbers are in the M/WBE Requirements tab in PASSPort, so read that tab before you line up subs. Everybody on your crew and your subs' crews needs an OSHA 10-hour card that's good on the day bids open. You need three projects, each substantially finished in the last ten years, plus three years of similar work, and the proof goes in with the bid. The bid bond is 5%. Performance and payment bonds are 100%. Bid security is due before 10 AM too.

Now, the site walk. The spec says a site inspection may follow the pre-bid conference, and that it's your only chance to see the site before bids open. The notice lists a Teams call and no site visit date. The bid booklet says site visits need DEP Police clearance, with forms in a week ahead and two people per company. Ask on Monday.

So here's your list. Get on the October 5 call. Post three questions in PASSPort: 3 HP or 5 HP, where are the last electrical sheets, and when is the walk-through. Line up your bond and your sub numbers. On a job where the spec and the drawing can't agree on the motor, the cheapest thing you'll buy all month is a written answer.