Depa r tmen t o f Pub l i c Work s Sewer Opera t ions

1901 E 26th St. Minneapolis, MN 55404

Specifications

Cleaning of the City of Minneapolis Small Diameter Sanitary System

Bid Specs

April 1, 2026

SEWER CLEANING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. DESCRIPTION

1.1 General

1.2 Definitions

2. CONSTRUCTION METHODS

2.1 Sewer Cleaning

2.2 Removal of Equipment That Becomes Stuck in a Sewer

2.3 Debris Removal

2.4 Water Supply for Sewer Cleaning

2.5 Temporary Traffic Control

2.6 Quality Assurance Televising

2.7 Acceptance of Work

3. MEASUREMENT AND PAYMENT

3.1 Sewer Cleaning

3.2 Removal of Equipment That Becomes Stuck in a Sewer

3.3 QA Televising

4. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

4.1 Standard

4.2 Partial Payments

4.3 Final Acceptance

4.4 Invoice and Payment

4.5 Contract Terms

SEWER CLEANING

1. DESCRIPTION

1.1 General

This specification covers the flushing and cleaning of existing sewers, including removal of debris. The work consists of furnishing all labor, equipment, material, electrical power, traffic control, permits and incidentals to complete the required cleaning of approximately 450,000 lineal feet of sanitary sewer. The cleaning contract may be increased or decreased at any time due to funding or workload levels.

1.2 Definitions

National Association of Sewer Service Companies Specifications Guidelines (NAASCO). Except for these Special Provisions, the National Association of Sewer Service Companies Specification Guidelines will be followed and are hereby made a part of these specifications.

Definitions for debris will generally be consistent with the nomenclature contained in the National Association of Sewer Service Companies Specifications Guidelines.

Contract Administrator shall be the City of Minneapolis Sewer Operations Engineer or his representative.

2. CONSTRUCTION METHODS

2.1 Sewer Cleaning

Notify the Contract Administrator of the location where sewer cleaning will be done one full day before starting the cleaning work at that location.

Clean sewers and manholes completely of debris including sludge, dirt, sand, gravel, rocks, bricks, grease and other solid and semi-solid materials removed from the sewer. Cleaning shall restore sewers to a minimum of 95% of the original carrying capacity.

Take necessary precautions to ensure that no flooding of public or private property occurs during sewer and manhole cleaning. Reduce pressure of cleaning equipment as directed by the Contract Administrator.

Start the cleaning operation with the upstream sewers in the system and proceed downstream with the direction of flow.

Scour manhole benches clean before cleaning the sewers downstream of manholes.

Clean all contributing upstream sewers before proceeding with cleaning downstream sewers.

Advise the Contract Administrator immediately when broken pipe fragments or a void with pipe bedding material inside the pipe is observed during the cleaning of a sewer.

Designated sewer segment interior surfaces will normally be cleaned using high-pressure (minimum 2000-psig, except where noted on map to use lower pressure due to likelihood of causing property damage) high-velocity jet equipment capable of removing and flushing out root cuttings and deposits of calcite, debris and sediment. Selection of the equipment used will be based on the conditions of lines at the time the work commences. The equipment will be capable of removing dirt, rocks, sand, and other materials and obstructions from the sewer lines. If cleaning of an entire section cannot be successfully performed from one manhole, the equipment will be set up on the other manhole and cleaning again attempted. If, again, successful cleaning cannot be performed or the equipment fails to traverse the entire section, it will be assumed that a major blockage exists and the cleaning effort shall be abandoned. The City shall also be informed of the issue and the location within four (4) hours from time of discovery. If cleaning by normal means cannot achieve the specified requirements, the Contractor shall submit a proposal and price for other methods to ensure that the cleaning requirements are met.

All lines shall be cleaned per the above requirements, unless they meet the definition of ‘heavy cleaning’ after four passes set to set with the jetter, as described below:

• 20% of the pipes original height for pipes less than 15” diameter

• 15% of the pipes original height for pipes greater than 15” and greater than or equal to 36” diameter

• 10% of the pipes original height for pipes greater than 36” diameter

In the event heavy cleaning exists the contractor shall report the segment to the City Contract Administrator.

Precaution will be taken by the Contractor in the use of cleaning equipment to avoid damage to the existing pipe. In addition, precaution shall be taken by the Contractor with the use of hydraulic cleaning tools that depend upon water pressure to provide their cleaning force such that the water pressure created does not damage or cause flooding of public or private property being served by the sewer.

2.2 Removal of Equipment That Becomes Stuck in a Sewer

Advise the Contract Administrator immediately if equipment becomes stuck in a sewer. Attempt to remove equipment that is stuck using conventional means for at least 4 hours. Alert the Contract Administrator if the equipment cannot be freed after 4 hours and mark the position on the surface over the sewer where the equipment is stuck.

The Contractor will arrange to have an excavation made to the top of the sewer where the equipment is struck within 48 hours of notification the equipment cannot be freed.

Be present during the excavation and once the top of the sewer is exposed and the excavation is secured, remove the top of the sewer pipe and retrieve the equipment stuck in the sewer.

The Contractor will arrange to have the sewer repaired after removal of the equipment that was stuck.

This work will be coordinated with the Contract Administrator in accordance to City of Minneapolis standard repairs. The City of Minneapolis will have the final approval of the repair, and the Contractor shall make any corrections to the repair that is not deemed satisfactory.

Clean and remove backfill and debris that may have entered the sewer during removal of the equipment and subsequent repair of the sewer.

2.3 Debris Removal

Continuously remove debris from the downstream manhole during sewer cleaning. Do not allow debris to be passed into the downstream sewer unless approved by the Contract Administrator. Liquids may be decanted back into the sewer at the manhole the Contractor is cleaning from provided that debris/solids are not reintroduced into the system.

Debris will be removed from the sewer system using truck-mounted vacuum extraction.

Debris will be disposed of at the City’s Linden Yard disposal site. There will be no charge for disposal since this is a City project and Linden Yard is a City owned facility. Any disposal of debris at the Linden Yard will be between the hours of 7:00am and 2:00pm, Monday through Friday. The Linden Yard is located at 816 W. Linden Ave, Minneapolis, MN, 55403.

2.4 Water Supply for Sewer Cleaning

Obtain the City of Minneapolis Hydrant Commercial Permit for hydrant use to acquire water supply for sewer cleaning in accordance with Minneapolis Water Department requirements. A permit is specific to a hydrant and does not transfer. The number for the Water Department 612-673-5600 or WTDSpermits@minneapolismn.gov.

Only 1 hose/nozzle connection will be permitted per hydrant. Only City Water Department personnel are permitted to connect a meter to a hydrant requested by the Contractor. There is a connection fee associated with any move of a meter to a hydrant. The Contractor shall coordinate with City Water Department staff of when to install and disconnect the meter based on the Contractor schedule.

Two or more consecutive hydrants will not be permitted for water supply at the same time.

Fire hydrant connections will be metered and will include a backflow preventer according to City Water Department requirements. A deposit for the meter will be required when acquiring the permit from the Water Department. Only Water Department personnel can relocate hydrant RPZ/meters. The Contractor is responsible for security of the meter while attached to the hydrant. Final costs will be invoiced for actual charges from the City’s Water Department.

Please be aware of the extra costs with acquiring a water supply and shall be accounted for in your proposal.

2.5 Temporary Traffic Control

The Contractor shall provide, install and maintain temporary traffic control devices and perform temporary traffic control in accordance to the MN MUTCD field manual as needed. All traffic control devices and signing shall conform to the MN MUTCD field manual. The cost of any barricading or temporary traffic control measures shall be included with, and incidental to, other bid items in the contract, unless noted otherwise. Short term lane closures will be permitted. Lane closure traffic control shall provide proper visibility and distances to merge traffic.

Please be aware as these requirements may affect your cost proposal.

For any cleaning required in areas where arterial roads will include closing portions of the road, the contractor shall submit a traffic control plan for review to the Traffic Department one (1) week in advance of such work. The Contractor shall also contact the Contract Administrator to notify and justify the reasoning for closing the road to the travelling public. If work requires only short term, lane closures on arterial roads, no traffic control plan is required.

The Contractor shall be required to obtain the City of Minneapolis Lane Use/Obstruction Permit for any work pertaining to the cleaning of sanitary sewers within the City of Minneapolis.

2.6 Quality Assurance Televising

The Contractor shall provide a video inspection of every pipeline cleaned which is to be collected by closed circuit television (CCTV). The purpose of the televising is to provide insight to the Contractor if the cleaning methods being used are cleaning the pipeline or if a more aggressive strategy must be used, while providing the Contract Administrator visual proof that the pipeline has been restored to a minimum 95% carrying capacity as specified in section 2.1. CCTV inspections for each sewer inspection will be provided as video saved to DVD or portable hard drive (jump drive) to the Contract Administrator.

Once per month, the Contractor will provide a copy of the video to the City, recorded the previous month.

This copy of the data will be provided on a new and previously unused portable hard drive or DVD which will be retained permanently by the City. The Contractor shall retain data a minimum of 2 months after submittal to the City.

The minimum information to be provided on the screen prior to each inspection of the sewer pipeline in order to identify the segment that was cleaned is to be as follows:

• Every map will have the asset number of each segment of pipe, identify the segment using the asset number.

o Use the following abbreviations: avenue AVE, street ST, parkway PKWY, way WAY, and terrace TERR.

• Sewer Size (diameter or HxW) e.g. 24 IN

• Date and Time of Inspection e.g. 08/17/2000-14:15

• Direction of Inspection e.g. WITH FLOW

• Contractor Name e.g. XYZ LTD

• Automatic update of the camera’s distance from the center of the start manhole e.g. 15.3 ft

The Contractor shall keep the camera lens clean during the entire sewer and manhole inspection. Ensure the picture is in focus from the point of observation to a minimum of two pipe diameters ahead of the camera.

2.7 Acceptance of Work

After sewer and manhole cleaning has been completed for a specific map, notify the Contract Administrator for review and determination if work performed is acceptable. The Contract Administrator will have the ability to review cleaned sewers within 2 business days of notification.

Once the external hard drive is submitted, the Contract Administrator shall have 5 business days to review and accept the video inspections provided by the Contractor.

Perform remedial work for sewer and manhole cleaning, and a re-inspection for the locations where the work was determined by the Contract Administrator as not being acceptable.

3. MEASUREMENT AND PAYMENT

3.1 Sewer Cleaning

Sewer cleaning will be measured on a length basis for each size of sanitary sewer and paid for at the Contract Unit Price per line item based on pipe diameter. Length to be paid for will be the total length of sewer cleaned in accordance with this specification, accepted and measured by the Contract Administrator. If heavy cleaning is required, the length of pipe cleaned by this method will be paid for at the heavy cleaning rate in lieu of the standard cleaning rate.

Cleaning and removing backfill and debris that may have entered the sewer during removal of equipment and the subsequent repair or during emergency repairs of the sewer will be incidental to the Contract.

The Contractor will record the estimated removal quantity of debris per day it is disposed of in cubic yards. This daily report will include the date and location of where the debris was removed from.

Measurement will be made horizontally at grade above the centerline of the sewer from center to center of manholes as confirmed by measuring wheel made to verify map records.

The diameter of non-circular sewers will be taken as the equivalent diameter.

95% of the payment will be made upon satisfactory completion of the cleaning work. The remaining 5% of the payment will be made upon final acceptance of the sewer cleaning as determined by the review of the corresponding inspection reports by City of Minneapolis personnel.

3.2 Removal of Equipment That Becomes Stuck in a Sewer

The Contractor will pay costs for excavating down to the top of the sewer pipe, repairing the sewer after cleaning equipment is removed, backfilling the excavation and restoring the surface if the Contractor is deemed to have completed operations in a negligent manner.

The City of Minneapolis will pay costs for excavating down to the top of the sewer pipe, repairing the sewer after cleaning equipment is removed, backfilling the excavation and restoring the surface if the pipe being cleaned was deemed to be in poor condition as defined by NAASCO standards prior to the onset of the Contractors cleaning operations.

No payment or extra time will be given for equipment downtime and attempted equipment retrieval.

3.3 QA Televising

Quality assurance televising of the sewer cleaning will be measured on a length basis for each sanitary sewer cleaned and paid for at the Contract Unit Price. Length to be paid for will be the total televised length of sewer cleaned in accordance with this specification, accepted and measured by the Contract Administrator.

Again, no payment or extra time will be given for equipment downtime.

No payment for multiple runs of televising the sewer pipeline will be given should extra cleaning require extra televising. Costs for more than one run to televise the sewer pipeline shall be accounted for in the Contract Unit Price.

4. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

4.1 Standard

• The standard City of Minneapolis working hours are between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. If the Contractor completes work outside of this timeframe, the Contractor shall acquire an After Hours Work Permit at the City rate. Note that this permit may affect your cost proposal. If the Contractor requires work to be completed outside of this timeframe, the Contractor shall bring for his proposal to the Engineer forty-eight (48) hours in advance of the work to be agreed upon by the two parties. The Contractor shall not do any work which requires inspection on Saturdays, Sundays, Federal, State or City Holidays, unless approved by the Engineer.

• The scope of work does not include the making of point repairs. Failures observed during inspection that warrant consideration as a point repair to be performed by City forces will be brought to the City’s attention.

• The City will provide Sanitary sewer maps to be cleaned. They can be either paper copy or electronic pdf format at the preference of the Contractor.

• The Contract Administrator or his representative will communicate regarding additional work items for the City and will be able to make decisions in a timely manner.

• The Contractor shall require all company personnel to wear appropriate/required personal protective equipment when operating/cleaning within the City of Minneapolis right of way.

• For City personnel to enter this progress into their work tracking software, the Contractor shall submit the provided map along with the attached spreadsheet to note the date the segments were cleaned along with any notes that may pertain to the segments that were cleaned immediately after the map is completed.

• The contract will be awarded based on the low bid total of items one through three on the proposal. However, the City reserves the right to decrease quantities should the total bid exceed budgeted funds. The City also reserves the right to increase the bid quantities should additional funds remain in this contract or become available. Additional quantities that are added to the contract will be paid at the same unit rates as submitted on the bid form.

4.2 Partial Payments

Payment requests shall be itemized according to the three bid items on the proposal and shall show the breakdown of cumulative totals less previous pay request totals.

4.3 Final Acceptance

Twice per month, the Contractor will provide data recorded in the daily progress reports. The Owner shall have ten (10) business days to accept the work. Upon Owner acceptance, an invoice for the accepted work can be submitted by the Contractor at the end of the month. By the end of the calendar year, the total retainage held from previous payments will be paid once all submittals/progress reports have been provided as well as approved and any subsequent inspections have taken place.

All work must be completed by December 1, 2026. Documentation shall be submitted by December 15th.

2026. Invoices shall be submitted by December 15th, 2026.

4.4 Invoice and Payment

All work requested under this Contract shall be placed on a City issued Purchase Order.

Contractor shall make all reasonable efforts to submit invoices and documentation in an electronic format, such as PDF or other format compatible with City software capabilities, in lieu of paper invoices and documentation, when so requested by City.

Upon delivery and acceptance of the service, the Contractor shall submit an invoice detailing the appropriate charges.

Invoices shall be submitted to:

City of Minneapolis 505 Fourth Ave S, Room 310 Minneapolis, MN 55415 Email: submitinvoices@minneapolismn.gov

Upon receipt of invoice and final inspection and acceptance of the service, the City will render payment within thirty (30) days unless any items thereon are questioned, in which event payment will be withheld pending verification of the amount claimed and the validity of the claim. The Contractor shall provide complete cooperation during any such investigation.

The City will not pre-pay for service. All bills shall state the location and dates of service being billed.

All fees, taxes, charges, surcharges, and revenue payments are to be itemized.

mailto:submitinvoices@minneapolismn.gov

4.5 Contract Terms

• Basis of Award: The City may award up to two (2) contracts to the overall low responsive and responsible bidder(s) meeting all specifications.

• Quantities: The quantities specified in the Bid Form and Contract are estimated only. They may not indicate the actual quantity which will be ordered, since such volume will depend upon requirements which develop during the Contract period. Quantities shown shall not be construed to represent any amount which the City shall be obligated to purchase under the Contract or relieve the Contractor of its obligation to fill all orders placed by the City.

• Non-Exclusive: Any contract(s) resulting from this Request for Bid will not be an exclusive contract and the City reserves the right to hire other contractors, to perform similar work, and seek bids from other vendors.

• Rights of the City: The City reserves the sole and exclusive right, in accordance with all applicable law, to reject all or any part of any bid, waive informalities, defects, irregularities, variances, technicalities, and award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder(s) to best serve the interest of the City. Informality shall mean a minor defect or variation of a bid from the exact requirements of the specifications which does not affect the price, quality, quantity, or delivery schedule for the goods, services or construction being procured.

• Subcontracting: Subcontracting of any work covered by this contract is NOT permitted except by prior written consent of the City. Contractor agrees to bind any subcontractor, and every subcontractor shall agree to be bound by the terms of the fully executed Agreement, specifications and drawings. It is anticipated that the total amount of this award will exceed $50,000. A signed Responsible Contractor form is required from all bidders. When no subcontractors will be used, Bidders should write “none” on the first line of the form before signing, dating and returning it with your bid.