Bill Text: NJ S3512 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Requires bidders on public works construction projects to submit information on fire safety features.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 2-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-04 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee [S3512 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2018-S3512-Introduced.html

SENATE, No. 3512

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

218th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED MARCH 4, 2019

 


 

Sponsored by:

Senator  JOSEPH PENNACCHIO

District 26 (Essex, Morris and Passaic)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires bidders on public works construction projects to submit information on fire safety features.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act requiring bidders on public works construction projects to submit information on fire safety features and supplementing various parts of the statutory law.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    Any request for proposals for a contract for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, renovation, preservation, or improvement of any public building or of any public work, to be paid in whole or in part with or out of State funds, shall require that a bidder on that contract include in the bid documents detailed information on all fire safety features that will be included in that project.  If a bidder does not propose the use of a sprinkler system to suppress fires and proposes, instead, the use of an alternative technology, that bidder shall provide a written explanation in the bid documents of why the alternative technology should be used instead of a sprinkler system, including a cost-benefit analysis of both a sprinkler system and the alternative technology.

 

     2.    Any request for proposals for a contract for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, renovation, preservation, or improvement of any public building or of any public work, to be paid in whole or in part with or out of the funds of any contracting unit, shall require that a bidder on that contract include in the bid documents detailed information on all fire safety features that will be included in that project.  If a bidder does not propose the use of a sprinkler system to suppress fires and proposes, instead, the use of an alternative technology, that bidder shall provide a written explanation in the bid documents of why the alternative technology should be used instead of a sprinkler system, including a cost-benefit analysis of both a sprinkler system and the alternative technology.

 

     3.    Any request for proposals for a contract for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, renovation, preservation, or improvement of any public building or of any public work, to be paid in whole or in part with or out of the funds of any board of education, shall require that a bidder on that contract include in the bid documents detailed information on all fire safety features that will be included in that project.  If a bidder does not propose the use of a sprinkler system to suppress fires and proposes, instead, the use of an alternative technology, that bidder shall provide a written explanation in the bid documents of why the alternative technology should be used instead of a sprinkler system, including a cost-benefit analysis of both a sprinkler system and the alternative technology.
     4.    Any request for proposals for a contract for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, renovation, preservation, or improvement of any public building or of any public work, to be paid in whole or in part with or out of the public funds, shall require that a bidder on that contract include in the bid documents detailed information on all fire safety features that will be included in that project.  If a bidder does not propose the use of a sprinkler system to suppress fires and proposes, instead, the use of an alternative technology, that bidder shall provide a written explanation in the bid documents of why the alternative technology should be used instead of a sprinkler system, including a cost-benefit analysis of both a sprinkler system and the alternative technology.

 

     5.    This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires a bidder on any contract for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, renovation, preservation, or improvement of any public building or of any public work to be paid for in whole or in part with or out of public funds, to include in the bid documents detailed information on all fire safety features that will be included in that project.  If a bidder does not propose the use of a sprinkler system to suppress fires and proposes, instead, the use of an alternative technology, that bidder must provide a written explanation in the bid documents of why the alternative technology should be used instead of a sprinkler system, including a cost-benefit analysis of both a sprinkler system and the alternative technology.

     Although the vast majority of buildings built or repaired using public funds have a sprinkler system, the bill's sponsor seeks to reinforce that all available fire suppression techniques that could be applied were examined and studied, as he is reminded of the Boland Hall fire at Seton Hall University, where three students died and many more were injured. In that case, there was no fire sprinkler suppression system, even if the building itself was up to code.

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