Bend city councilors could decide Wednesday whether to forgo Oregon’s competitive bidding requirements on a planned $71 million overhaul of the municipal water system.

If councilors approve the exemption, it would allow the city to avoid awarding contracts to the lowest-priced bidder — as is normally required under state law — and instead let them hire a single firm to manage the project based on other criteria, such as references, expertise and experience in building surface water systems.

Under the construction manager/general contractor process, the firm hired by the city would be involved in nearly every facet of the city’s surface water improvement project, from design and engineering to hiring subcontractors and scheduling work. The firm could also perform some of the construction itself.

“I don’t see many downfalls to it,” Bend Public Works Director Paul Rheault said of using the CM/GC method.

“You bring (the contractor) on early enough, and I think there’s potential for good cost savings and certainly efficiency.”

The city is in the process of updating its water supply system. It wants to replace the aging pipes that bring water from Bridge Creek into Bend and add a new treatment system that would help kill Cryptosporidium and other potentially dangerous microorganisms.

Bend has used the CM/GC process in the past, including for the construction of the Bend Police station and downtown parking garage. Other agencies, namely Deschutes County and Redmond School District, have also used the exemption for some of their own construction ventures.

In order for Bend to receive an exemption from the competitive bidding process on the surface water improvement project, state law requires the city to demonstrate that having a CM/GC contract won’t encourage favoritism or substantially diminish competition. The city must also prove the exemption will likely result in a “substantial cost savings” to the municipality.

City officials contend the surface water improvement project is a good candidate for using a CM/GC because of its complexity and the fact that it has several major components involved in the $71 million price tag, such as a 10-mile-long pipeline, hydroelectric powerhouse and water treatment plant. The project also needs to be fast-tracked in order to comply with federal mandates requiring the city to update its water system by October 2012.

With so many independent factors and different projects going on at the same time, Heidi Lansdowne, Bend’s Project Manager of the Public Works Department’s Water/Waste Water Division, said its easier for the city to have one contractor coordinate everything rather than go out to bid on each component and try to fit the deadlines together to make sure all the work is being performed on time and without conflicts between subcontractors.

“As a CM/GC they’re basically taking responsibility for pulling the show together when it comes to construction,” Lansdowne said. “They’re not only in charge of the contracting, they’re managing the contracting as a very experienced firm.”

With a CM/GC contract, Lansdowne said the contractor also becomes involved in the project earlier than with the traditional competitive bidding process where a construction crew would not be hired until after the design was completed. She said under the CM/GC scenario, the contractor is involved during the design phase and can perform value engineering work or make other suggestions that could save Bend money in the long term.

“It basically gets a complete fresh set of eyes at the beginning of the project,” Lansdowne said. “You can come up with some really great ideas sometimes, but sometimes people that aren’t construction-oriented forget about, ‘Well, how are you going to build it? We can build it, but it would be so much cheaper if we did it this way.’”

In a financial impact analysis of whether the city should take the CM/GC route, Bend Budget Manager Sharon Wojda wrote that while using a single contractor could be more complicated for the city to administer than simply accepting the lowest bidder, if “properly managed and controlled” it could result in savings. Wojda also noted that if the CM/GC was not properly managed, cost overruns could occur.

“The city has to properly manage the contractor,” Wojda said in an interview Friday. “If we go the CM/GC route, it doesn’t remove the city from the process. We’re not writing them a blank check. We’re obviously still heavily involved in the process and still have oversight.”

The City Council will hold a public hearing Wednesday on the CM/GC exemption. Councilors could either make a decision after the public hearing or wait until the next council meeting in August.

If you go

What: Bend City Council meeting

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Bend City Hall, 710 N.W. Wall St., Bend