Bill Text: NJ S1406 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires bidders on public works construction projects to submit information on fire safety features.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-13 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee [S1406 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-S1406-Introduced.html
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.
