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City Council - 3 - October 29, 1998 • The Children's Library will be located at the front of the building in an enclosed space and will provide greater safety for the children as well as significantly reduce the ambient noise level emanating from this section of the library. • A new Teen Area, non -book media area, and quiet, periodical reading area will be created. • The expansion will provide for more room for books. Part of this expansion is required because of the impact of ADA requirements on the existing space availability for library materials. • Additional reader seats will be made available to relieve the overcrowding and need for children and youngsters to sit on the floor. • An Electronic Learning Center will be established in order to provide electronic delivery of information to our community. • A new San Leandro History Room is planned. • The Government Documents Collection will be relocated into the public area of the library. Construction Approach and Timeline The firm of Collaborative Design Architects will be submitting the plans for the library retrofit/renovation/expansion project to the City's Development Services Department next week for plan review and permits. The City Council will be able to call for construction bids by early January 1999. It is anticipated the award of the construction contract will take place in March 1999. The library project will be completed by June 2000. Under the conventional single prime contracting method, the general building contractor is awarded a single contract to construct the entire project. Typically this contractor will subcontract 80 percent to 95 percent of the total project to other contractors that he has selected, normally on the basis of lowest cost. It should be noted that for the majority of projects constructed by the City, it is a contract requirement that more than 50% of the project be constructed by the prime contractor's own work force. This, however, is not possible in a building project with the library's complexity. Also in single prime contracting, the general contractor is held accountable to the project by bonds and damage clauses in the contract. As the general contractor is responsible (referred to as "at risk") for delivering the finished product as designed, problems that arise between sub- contractors are the general contractor's to resolve and, in theory, are invisible to the City. Unfortunately in the single prime contract, the general contractor's abilities to manage a project or produce the project are not tested, as the only criteria for selection is lowest bid price. The management of the project and the direct contractual relationship is between the City through the City's construction manager and the general contractor, who in turn, negotiates changes with their sub -contractors. This can lead to potential problems including delays, poor workmanship, costly claims and extensive change orders. An alternative to the use of single prime contracting for public agencies project is an untraditional approach known in the construction industry as a "multiple prime contract". This process has been successful in the private industry and more recently in the public sector for the cities of 0