Volume 42 - Issue 43 - October 26, 2023

State of Kansas

Department of Transportation

Notice to Consulting Firms

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is seeking up to 5 qualified consulting firms or teams of firms to perform professional services as described below. Interested consultants must submit a proposal to the appropriate bid form on Bid Express by 12:00 p.m. (Central Time) on November 10, 2023, to be considered for selection.

Consultant Prequalification

Interested consulting firms must be prequalified by KDOT or otherwise demonstrate qualification in the following categories:

• 231 – Traffic Control Analysis and Design

If a firm is not currently prequalified by KDOT, a proposal may still be submitted. Firms not prequalified must also provide documentation that demonstrates the firm is qualified for each specified category listed in this notice for the project. Firms must use the KDOT prequalification form to provide this documentation. KDOT 1050 Prequalification Category Definitions (Blue Book) can be found at http://www.ksdot.org/descons.asp. Consultants may create a team to meet the prequalification requirements. All firms doing business with KDOT must be registered and in good standing under the laws of the State of Kansas at the time of contracting and must comply with applicable state and federal laws, rules, and regulations.

Background and Scope of Projects

Periodically for a given project, KDOT personnel may be unable to perform permanent signing inventory, data collection, design, planning, or other tasks within the timeframe required so it may be necessary to engage a consultant firm on short notice. This process begins with KDOT issuing an on-call service request to firms that have executed an on-call permanent signing agreement specifically for this type of support. To expedite commencement of work, resulting work order(s) are executed under the terms and conditions of that agreement. KDOT anticipates entering into such an agreement with up to 5 qualified consulting firms. Below is a list needed to complete permanent signing services:

• Permanent Signing Analysis, Design and Construction Plan development.
• Periodically, KDOT may be unable to perform within the time frame required. In those instances, it may be necessary to engage a consultant (with appropriately accredited personnel and equipment) on short notice under an on-call agreement.

Therefore, KDOT is seeking to execute on-call agreements up to 5 highly qualified firms, one of which may be selected on a project-by-project basis for specific assignment to be detailed in a task order/work order issued under a period of three years with an option to extend by one year two times with total max years of agreement possible of 5 years at KDOT’s sole discretion.

Anticipated Consultant Scope

KDOT anticipates the following to be included in the selected consultants’ scope: Permanent Signing Services as described below:

• Most often, the scope of services will generally consist of performing permanent signing engineering analysis, inventory, data collection, design, and construction plan development for KDOT along with field recommendations, shall be performed in accordance with the appropriate MUTCD, the HSM, AASHTO, Luminaires and Traffic Signals policies and procedures as directed by KDOT.
• In addition, requests for permanent signing services may occur on accelerated schedules. For this reason, approved consultants will need the ability to respond within a week to KDOT requests for permanent signing on-call services.

Anticipated Schedule and Key Dates

1. Proposals are due by or before 12:00 p.m. (Central Time) November 10, 2023.
2. Evaluation and ranking of proposals are expected to occur on or around November 15, 2023.
3. Executed agreements are anticipated to be complete around December 6, 2023.

Instructions for Proposal

1. No cost or pricing information shall be submitted with the proposal. Proposals including cost or pricing information will be considered non-responsive and withdrawn from further consideration.
2. The consultant’s proposal must not exceed 4 pages total (including any cover letter, index, etc.). All pages shall be standard letter size (8.5” x 11”). Any page larger than standard letter size will be count as two or more pages depending on size.
3. A single PDF (10MB maximum size) of the proposal must be uploaded to the appropriate bid form on Bid Express by the proposal due date and time.
4. The proposal PDF file name must read:
   1. “On-Call Permanent Signing 2023_FIRM NAME”
5. The proposal must be accompanied by Special Attachments No. 8 (“Tax Clearance Certificate”) and No. 10 (“Policy Regarding Sexual Harassment”). If you need a Tax Clearance Certificate, you can request one here at https://www.ksrevenue.gov/taxclearance.html. Allow 2-3 business days for processing.
6. The outline in Table 1 below describes the expected proposal organization and content sections.
7. Table 2 lists the evaluation criteria and associated weights which will be used to make a selection.
8. Contact information for one consultant individual who is capable of answering any questions that may arise from the proposal shall be included in the proposal.
9. Depending on the number of responses received, KDOT may elect to shortlist (based on proposals) and hold in-person interviews prior to final selection (which may be based on both proposal and interview content). If KDOT deems them necessary, interview evaluation criteria will be distributed to shortlisted consultant teams in advance.

Table 1: Proposal Content
Section	Description of Intent	Page Limit
Cover Letter		1 Page
Project Approach	Demonstrate adequate capabilities to provide the services efficiently and to a high standard. Include cost-effective and optimized solutions. Include unique qualifications or experience related to the services required.
Approach to Schedule	Describe the ability to accomplish the scope of services within schedule requirements. Include anticipated timelines for mobilization and lab analysis.
Approach to Quality Control	Describe methods or procedures your firm will use to provide all services, reports and other deliverables with professional quality and technical accuracy.
Qualifications and Experience	For key personnel to be assigned to the project, provide names, office location, qualifications, education, training, and expertise. Identify their area(s) of responsibility and their ability to dedicate what percent of their time to the project when providing the subject services. If there are changes in key personnel, KDOT should be notified immediately, and the above information should be provided for the new personnel.
Past Performance	Describe team’s past performance with respect to ability to meet project schedules; quality of work; and ability to control costs on similar transportation projects, especially those performed for KDOT. Include three references and contact information.
Familiarity with KDOT and Project Areas	Describe team’s familiarity with KDOT’s processes and standards. Describe familiarity with geotechnical engineering and geology in Kansas and any special site conditions you might anticipate finding.

Table 2: Evaluation Factors
Evaluation Factor	Weight
Qualifications and experience of project manager and other key project team members proposed for services	20%
Approach and commitment to meet advertised schedule	15%
Past performance history for similar projects/services for KDOT	20%
Understanding of the project area	5%
Innovation/Creativity in solutions	10%
Availability to respond to the work	15%
Unique qualifications	5%
Approach to quality control	5%
Demonstrated understanding of nature and scope of project	5%

Contract Terms and Conditions

The full list of consultants holding a “Permanent On-Call Agreement” resulting from this Request for Proposals is intended to replace the existing list of “High Performance Signing On-Call Agreement” holders based on the contracts executed in 2019. Each 2019 contract will remain in effect until either the contract expiration date (without extension) or when KDOT has determined the consultant has reached the contract maximum cumulative aggregate maximum cost. After the first of these occurs, each 2019 contract will be considered expired. Upon such expiration, firms currently holding a “High Performance Signing On-Call Agreement” that are not shortlisted or are otherwise unable to successfully negotiate a new on-call agreement for this purpose will no longer receive on-call service requests associated with this Request for Proposals.

A KDOT Permanent on-call agreement for engineering and technical services will be used. KDOT may request this service via on-call service requests over a period of three years with an option to extend by one year two times with total max years of agreement possible of 5 years at KDOT’s sole discretion, which will result in work orders subject to a maximum cumulative aggregate amount payable to each on-call agreement holder under the agreement. This maximum amount payable will be the same for all on-call agreement holders, will be stated in each agreement, and is anticipated to be a cost not to exceed $2,000,000.

The following special attachments will need to be provided by the selected consultant and all subconsultants with the signed work order following negotiations and will become attachments to the contract:

• Special Attachment No. 8 (“Tax Clearance Certificate”)
• Special Attachment No. 10 (“Policy Regarding Sexual Harassment”)

Special Contract Conditions

On-Call agreements negotiated with the selected firms will take effect around December 6, 2023, have a maximum cost of services of two million dollars ($2,000,000) over the life of the agreement, per consultant, and remain effective until such amount is spent associated with the agreement.

Finally, each firm shortlisted must affirm it utilizes accounting systems capable of the following before the firm may be awarded a contract:

• Valid, reliable, and current costs must be available within the system to support actual costs and pricing data.
• Capability to provide a means of measuring the reasonableness of incurred costs.
• Capability to identify and accumulate allowable costs by contract or project records that will reconcile with the general ledger.
• Ability to provide supporting documentation of actual expenditures for each billing, based on costs.

Questions

All questions regarding this Request for Proposals shall be submitted via Q&A section of bid form in Bid Express.

Questions can be submitted until November 2, 2023; answers will be provided to all prequalified consultants on November 6, 2023.

Calvin Reed
Secretary
Department of Transportation

Doc. No. 051590