Agriculture and Irrigation - Request for Proposal - Bow Basin Infrastructure General Engineering and Professional Services 2025 - 2028

Project Background Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Water Infrastructure and Operations Branch (WIOB) requires an engineering consultant to provide assignment-based engineering and professional services for water management infrastructure located in southern Alberta. WIOB is responsible for operating and maintaining the water management infrastructure owned by the Government of Alberta which diverts, stores, and delivers water for agricultural, municipal, domestic, industrial, and recreational use. Provincially owned water management infrastructure in the Bow River Basin consists primarily of earthen and concrete structures, geotechnical, electrical, and mechanical components, along with electro-mechanical and geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring systems. The infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, dams, canals, water control structures, and water diversion headworks. The Bow infrastructure operation office covers the following systems and project areas: Carseland-Bow River Headworks System and Canal, North and South McGregor Dams, Travers Dam, Little Bow Dam, Western Headworks System (WID Canal), Little Bow Diversion and Women’s Coulee System, Twin Valley Dam and Clear Lake Canal, Sheerness Water Supply System, Carolside Dam, Janet Dam, Woodrow Dam, Deadfish Water Supply System, and Deadfish Dam, Severn Dam, and Loyalist Dam.These contract engineering services are required to support the surveillance, monitoring, and maintenance program and ensure operational readiness and safety of these critical infrastructure systems. Through the course of routine inspections, various deficiencies and management issues are identified that often require assistance from specialized engineering professionals. Also, some surveillance work such annual engineering inspections requires external professional resources which also typically includes review of dam geotechnical instrumentation, interpretation of data anomalies and linkage to overall dam performance assessment and reporting. Addressing deficiencies also often requires detailed engineering investigations, assessment, analysis, design, and reporting to support requests for capital, operational, or non-operational funding. To fulfill this requirement, expertise in various engineering disciplines must be accessed using external resources. Project Objectives The scope of work of the engineering assignments will be prepared by the contract manager or their designate on a task order basis and will specify the engineering expertise required to perform assignments related to water management infrastructure and operations. Proponents will be selected based on their experience and capacity to provide engineering and professional services such as, but not limited to, inspection, investigation/studies, assessment, detailed design, construction oversight, maintenance support, CAD drafting, data review, modelling, interpretation, and/or diagnostics within some or all of the following engineering disciplines: Civil/Geotechnical: Erosion protection, foundation settlement, seepage, seismic deformation, granular filtration, drains/filters, slope stability analysis and stabilization, non-destructive testing and surveys (such as geophysical survey techniques), preparation and review of geotechnical memos/reports, engineering inspection, and dam safety inspections of earthen embankment dams, earthen spillways, earthen canals and banks, drainage channels, roads, culvert crossings, berms, flood protection dykes, bridges, etc. Geotechnical instrumentation support: Including data review and interpretation, assessment, evaluation, installation, and troubleshooting of various manual and automated instruments, including, but not limited to piezometers, standpipes, slope inclinometers, extensometers, pressure relief systems, water level gauges, data loggers, seepage measurement weirs, survey benchmarks, telemetry, etc. Structural: Destructive/non-destructive testing, topple analysis, shoring/anchoring techniques, 3D scanning, and local/widespread repair support for concrete, steel, and timber structures related to water management infrastructure, such as spillways, drop structures, check structures, siphons, low-level outlets, diversion headworks, canal wasteways, concrete-lined open channels, buildings, bridges, structural steel platforms, catwalks, etc. Hydrotechnical: Open channel and piped hydraulics, fluid dynamics, hydrology, climatology, water quality, biology (fish ladders and instream flow considerations), geomorphology, IDF simulation, dam breach and other flood routing, and erosion protection for earthen and concrete-lined canals, flood embankments, earthen and concrete spillways, low-level outlet works, canal siphons, wasteways, weirs and check structures, piped conveyance systems, irrigation headworks structures, etc. Mechanical: Installation support, maintenance, and other support activities for hydraulic gates and valves (slide, overshot, radial, sluice), hoisting, actuators, cranes, piping and pump station systems, etc. Electrical: Distribution systems, SCADA systems, underground services, lighting, electric generators, etc. Surveying: Ability to collect, post-process, and interpret survey data. May include legal land surveys, land title support, topographic surveys, bathymetric and hydrographic surveys, UAV drone surveys, remote sensing techniques, 3D photogrammetry, etc. Professional services: Technical document and specification development, review and presentation, public safety plans, assets inventory, operation maintenance & surveillance (OM&S) manual preparation and updates, GIS mapping, CAD services, detailed engineering, inspections, cost estimating, etc. Based on the assignment scope of work, the consultant shall provide the following services: 1. Review the Project Scope of Work document provided by the Contract Manager and their delegates detailing the deficiency or issue and required outcomes. 2. Identify and collect additional information related to the assignment as required. 3. Perform field investigations and inspections as required. 4. Perform engineering analysis, computations, and evaluations as required. 5. Develop options for improvement and/or solutions and review with the contract manager. 6. Prepare a memorandum style report with recommendations and cost estimates. 7. Provide construction management and inspection services and construction completion reports as required. 8. Submit detailed, monthly invoices, including a breakdown of labour, equipment, and material costs, as well as copies of OH&S tail gate meetings and field level hazard assessments completed during the billing period, or a signed statement indicating that no OH&S incidents occurred during the billing period. Depending on the complexity of the work and timing constraints identified by the contract manager, the successful Proponent will likely undertake two to five assignments per year. Project Structure/Business Model: The consultant will report to the AGI contract manager who will be located in the Bow Operations office in Calgary, Alberta. With offices in Calgary and Vulcan, the Bow Operations office is responsible for the overall management of water management projects, operation, maintenance, and surveillance in the area of the Bow River Basin, as well as Little Bow River and portions of the Red Deer River Basin near Hanna, Alberta. A single point of contact will be established with the contract manager, and other office staff will be assigned to each project as necessary to work with the consultant to deliver the required outcomes. Key Stakeholders: The primary stakeholder is Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation (AGI) - Water Infrastructure and Operations Branch (WIOB), who are responsible for ensuring diligent management of the water management infrastructure. Stakeholders also include other consultants, private industry, Irrigation Districts, private irrigators, Municipalities, and the public. Related Project Documents: Available support documents will be provided for each assignment or task as it arises, and the consultant will have ample opportunity to identify their needs in terms of information and date required to adequately perform the Services.