Scottsdale pays six figures for municipal roundabout engineering consultation

By Terrance Thornton
Twitter: @ININEWSMAN

CLARIFICATION: The city of Scottsdale has agreed to pay each firm up to $250,000 if the need were to arise in the event consulting needs existed for a proposed roundabout.

Jennifer Banks at the Transportation Department:

"The City Council has approved one-year contract extensions with MTJ Roundabout Engineering and Roundabouts & Traffic Engineering. This pre-approval process allows the city to pay each firm up to $250,000 for roundabout engineering consulting services if they are needed during the next year. The city has not paid or committed any money to the consulting firms as part of this contract extension approval."

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

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The City of Scottsdale is not proposing any new roundabouts for traffic control and safety today --- but as the need arises municipal leaders have two roundabout experts waiting in the wings.

To the tune of up to $250,000 each, both MTJ Roundabout Engineering and Roundabouts & Traffic Engineering will be the on-call roundabout engineering experts in “The West’s Most Western Town” for an additional year.

Scottsdale City Council, March 3, approved one-year contract extensions with two work contracts, one for MTJ, the other with Roundabouts & Traffic Engineering.

“The purpose of this action is to award on-call roundabout specialist engineering services contract extensions to [Roundabouts & Traffic Engineering] and MTJ to provide design review, planning, analysis and professional consultation pertaining to roundabouts on an ‘as-needed’ basis at various project locations throughout the city,” said Melanie Gibson, Scottsdale public works project coordinator, in her report to City Council.

The range of services include:

• Roundabout design review and consultation;
• Roundabout design review and consultation for roundabouts proposed in private developments;
• Planning-level roundabout design concept reports;
• Feasibility and comparative cost reviews;
• Expert consultation at project meetings; and
• Preparation of construction drawings and technical specifications for individual roundabouts.

An estimated 151,000 motorists make a daily commute to Scottsdale from surrounding municipalities seeking to maintain gainful employment; however, the management of those movers and shakers is a constant endeavor. In 2017, there were 959 speed-related arrests and over 1,300 people were injured in speed-related collisions in Scottsdale, records show.

Ms. Gibson outlines that in the event of large, individual projects select engineers may be sought in addition to the expertise of on-call roundabout engineers.

“The maximum annual aggregate limit of $250,000 per contract is consistent with anticipated requirements that would be dutiable for execution using these contracts over the next year,” she explained of tenets of on-call consultation.

“City staff will continue to use the same community involvement and notification procedures for work orders issued under these contracts that are used when projects are designed using other procurement methods in order to meet the needs of residents and businesses throughout the project areas.”