Meeting Minutes for December 18, 2020

Meeting Location: NHDOT Commissioner’s Conference Room
Day/Time: Friday (1:00 pm – 2:30 pm)

In Attendance:
Bill Oldenburg, NHDOT (Chair)
Mike Long, MJ (Scribe)
Ted Kitsis, NHDOT
Alex Koutroubas, ACEC
Darren Blood, GM2
Marty Kennedy, VHB
Loretta Girard Doughty, NHDOT
Chris Mulleavey, HTA

Unable to Attend:

Jim Marshall, NHDOT
CR Willeke, NHDOT
Rob Faulkner, CHA
Michelle Marshall, FHWA

1. Meeting Minutes: The meeting minutes from the last meeting were accepted.
2. Assigned Scribe for Meeting: Mike Long
3. Topics for Discussion:
   • Escalation Rate
     • Further discussion was held regarding the establishment of an escalation rate on
       consultant salaries for next year. ACEC provided data accumulated from 27 firms
       (almost all have current contracts with NHDOT). Information was provided to
       Alex anonymously and the average salary increase from 2019 to 2020 was
       approximately 3.5%. Last year’s rate was taken from US Bureau of Labor
       Statistics Data which seems somewhat coarse and not entirely reflective of our
       industry, especially in southern New Hampshire as it is influenced by the Boston
       market. Using that data again would provide a rate of 2.25%. Bill suggested
       using that rate plus 1% and after some additional discussion it was agreed that he
       would propose that to the front office for approval.
   • Sub-Consultant Self-Certification Form
     • Bill asked if this form, which requires subconsultants to certify as to whether they
       are required to have an indirect cost rate (audited overhead rate) review based on
       the current contract value, could be moved along for possible implementation.
       ACEC’s concerns had been expressed in the previous meeting and through email concerning when a contract is actually complete for a subconsultant. With that in
       mind, Bill will move the form along for any additional internal Department
       comment and implementation.
   • Winter Conference
     • There will be no winter conference as in past years. Instead, a town hall type
       forum will be held with the Commissioner will be arranged, sometime around the
       middle of January.
   • April Technical Transfer
     • The Technical Conference will still be held in 2021, but it is being planned as a
       virtual conference due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The conference
       sub-committee is going forward with a plan to do it over a five day period with
       presentations each day. The technology on how to do this with a large audience
       has been discussed with SNHU. More to come on this in the near future.
   • Committees
     • Contracts – The committee is making progress on a standard scope of
       work and in fact, a standard for environmental assignments is very close to
       completion. Christine Perron from MJ provided McFarland Johnson’s
       “standard” and this was used as an initial template. The committee met
       and reinvigorated the process in other areas.
     • Bridge – No meetings recently, although Loretta noted that the
       Design/Build Manual has been reviewed and is almost complete and ready
       for publication.
     • Highway – Jim was not present today, but it was noted that a meeting was
       held recently and that the minutes from that and other meetings have been
       posted to the website.
     • LPA – CR was out and there was no update in this area.
4. Other Items: No other items were discussed.
5. Next Meeting – January 15, 2021

Meeting Minutes for September 18, 2020

Meeting Location: Virtual Zoom Meeting
Day/Time: Friday (2:00 pm – 3:00pm)

In Attendance:
Bill Oldenburg, NHDOT (Chair)
Mike Long, MJ
Ted Kitsis, NHDOT
Alex Koutroubas, ACEC
Michelle Marshall, FHWA
Chris Mulleavey, HTA (Scribe)
Darren Blood, GM2
Marty Kennedy, VHB
Loretta Girard Doughty, NHDOT
Jim Marshall, NHDOT
CR Willeke, NHDOT

Unable to Attend:

Rob Faulkner, CHA

1. Meeting Minutes: The meeting minutes from the last meeting were accepted.
2. Assigned Scribe for Meeting: (DOT even months/ACEC odd months) – Chris Mulleavey
3. Topics for Discussion:
   • Partnering Meeting Oct. 2, 2020 – Agenda Discussion
     • Bill O. mentioned training needs to acquire PDH’s have been difficult due
       to Covid restrictions. ACEC mentioned that there are a number of
       websites on-line that provide this service to engineers i.e. RedVector
     • Not a lot of ideas for additional agenda items other than standard updates,
       Bill O. will also mention some issues they are dealing with for electronic
       submissions in that consultants are password protecting their documents as
       file as file size limitations. ACEC suggested that they develop specific
       guidelines to be used for consultant electronic submittals.
     • Michelle M. suggested mentioning Everyday Counts Six is being rolled
       out soon by FHWA.
   • Winter Conference Jan. 15, 2021 – Agenda Discussion
     • The conference is planned to be virtual at this time
     • Bill O. will reach out to Kevin Nyhan for environmental topics, mentioned
       Permit requirement updates and MS4 as possibilities.
   • Tech Conference April 2021 – Discussion
     • Hope to have conference in person but will have backup plan for virtual
       meeting. Bill O. and Alex K. to get the committee together to start
       planning.
   • Consultant Selection Manual – Update Status
     • No change from last meeting Bill O. working out kinks for on-line version
       and then submit to Contracts sub-committee for review of updates.
4. Status of Subcommittees:
   • Consultants Contracts Subcommittee (Darren)
     • Standardized Scope of work/Fee Matrix: Darren reviewing with
       Committee.
     • Darren thanked Loretta for volunteering staff to write up sections which
       will speed up the process. Working on Part A will review at next meeting
       scheduled for Oct.1, 2020 then onto Part B.
   • Bridge Subcommittee (Loretta)
     • Design Manual Update -Held meeting Friday Sept. 11.
     • The Updated Manual is being reviewed internally.
     • Estimating Committee is developing a guidance document for estimating
       projects.
     • The Bridge Sub-Committee notes can be viewed on-line at the NHDOT’s
       website.
   • Design-Build Manual (Loretta)
     • Is complete and going through internal review process. Once complete
       will be posted on NHDOT’s website for consultant’s use.
   • Highway Subcommittee (Jim Marshall)
     • Design Manual update – Committee will be meeting in 2 weeks, working
       on design submission checklists and aligning them with standardized
       scope, design manual chapter 8 revision is with Policy and Records then
       onto FHWA.
     • “Working on Design Report to document from beginning to end”
5. LPA Topics (CR W.):
   • DOT managed on-call solicitation out also evaluating Pre-Qual list that
     Municipalities can utilize for consultant selection for LPA.
   • Working on a lot of procedural processes in the background for LPA.
   • Planning on LPA training virtually in the November/December time frame.
6. Other Items:
   • Question raised from Mike L. regarding proper invoicing around the DOT Fiscal
     year ending. Bill O. That the only fiscal year ending that needs to be adhered to is
     the DOT’s which ends June 30th. The DOT cannot pay an invoice the spans two
     Fiscal years. Ie. June 30 is the stop then new Fiscal year begins July 1.
7. Next Meeting – Thursday, October 16, 2020

Meeting Minutes for July 16, 2020

Meeting Location: NHDOT Commissioner’s Conference Room/Zoom
Day/Time: Thursday (8:00 am – 9:00am)

In attendance:

Bill Oldenburg, NHDOT (Chair)
Mike Long, MJ
Ted Kitsis, NHDOT
Alex Koutroubas, ACEC
Michelle Marshall, FHWA
Chris Mulleavey, HTA
Rob Faulkner, CHA
Darren Blood, GM2
Keith Cota, NHDOT
Marty Kennedy, VHB (Scribe)
Loretta Girard Doughty, NHDOT
Jim Marshall, NHDOT
CR Willeke, NHDOT

1. Meeting Minutes: The meeting minutes from the last meeting were accepted.
2. Assigned Scribe for Meeting: (DOT even months/ACEC odd months) – Marty Kennedy
3. Topics for Discussion:
   • COVID-19 Contract Addendum Language
     • The Department had begun distributing a Special Contract Provision for
       COVID-19 that states that any disruption, delay, or other impact associated
       with COVID-19 was foreseeable and therefore does not excuse the
       Consultant’s performance under the agreement.
     • Bill explained that language came directly from the AG’s office. This was
       primarily about contractors suppling goods to the state, but the term
       “Consultant” was inserted into the document.
     • Consultants’ concern is that although the language protects the state, it does
       not protect the consultant. The language puts the consultant in a position of
       being responsible for meeting a schedule regardless of whether the
       Governor was to invoke a workplace shutdown order.
     • Bill agreed language was one-sided and agreed to take concerns back to
       AG’s office.
     • More discussion on this to come.
   • Discuss SW Cole Question – Geotech sub that does Design and CE&I on same project
     • Regarding the Department’s policy that the same firm can not do both the
       design work and the construction inspection on the same project, SW Cole
       asked the Department if that policy pertained to subs.
     • Following some discussion, Bill felt that it was permissible for a
       subconsultant to do work on both the design and CE&I as long as they
       where overseen by someone else – the Prime.
   • CE&I Field Rate
     • Following up on a discussion from last month’s meeting on whether a field
       overhead rate must be used for construction inspection, Bill checked with
       Audit. Doesn’t appear to be a major issue. There was some discussion that
       an office rate can be used if there was no field office or if the inspector
       regularly works out of the consultant’s regular office. Most use office rate
       now.
   • Construction Services – Part C Agreement?
     • Under Part A consultant’s surveyor records existing ROW. Under Part B
       consultant’s surveyor prepares acquisition plans. How does the Department
       pay the consultant to place bounds when it can be many years later until the
       work is done?
     • Currently there is no opportunity for the designer to assist or respond to
       questions if an issue arises.
     • May consider an on-call for PE at beginning of Part C that would cover
       survey, shop drawing reviews, etc.
4. Next Meeting: Discussed changing the day of our monthly meeting because Bill has
   another regular 9:00 am meeting and our meetings always get cut short and we rarely get
   through all agenda items. Following the meeting, the date of our regular meetings was
   changed to the 3rd Friday of the month at 1:00 pm. Our next meeting is scheduled for
   Friday August 21st.