Volume 42 - Issue 7 - February 16, 2023

State of Kansas

Department of Transportation

Notice to Consulting Firms

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is seeking to augment its existing on-call consultant list with additional firms that are interested in providing construction inspection services on an as-needed basis for projects in various locations statewide. KDOT anticipates entering into up to 20 additional agreements with qualified consulting firms that may perform the services described below when KDOT does not have adequate personnel.

Interested consultants must email a proposal to KDOT.DesignContracts@ks.gov by 12:00 p.m. (Central Time) March 1, 2023, to be considered for selection.

Consultant Prequalification

Interested consulting firms must be prequalified by KDOT or otherwise demonstrate qualification in category 241 – Construction Inspection and Testing.

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 the 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. 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

Periodically for a given project, KDOT’s personnel may be unable to perform construction inspection and/or testing tasks within the timeframe required so it may be necessary to engage a consultant firm (with appropriate KDOT certifications) on short notice. This process begins with KDOT issuing an on-call service request to firms that have executed an on-call master 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.

A number of firms already hold on-call master agreements to support construction inspection and/or testing. KDOT seeks to add up to 20 firms to this “on-call list.”

Anticipated Consultant Scope

KDOT anticipates the following to be included in the consultant’s scope: project inspection, sampling, and testing, as well as accurate and timely documentation thereof, including submission of all documentation and test results to KDOT. Thorough knowledge of, and compliance with KDOT’s Standard Specifications for State Road and Bridge Construction, Construction Manual, project specifications, and other relevant KDOT policies, procedures, and manuals, as well as KDOT documentation and recordkeeping requirements is essential.

Anticipated Schedule and Key Dates

1. Proposals are due by or before 12:00 p.m. (Central Time) on March 1, 2023.
2. Evaluation and ranking of proposals are expected to occur on or around March 22, 2023. Development of on-call agreements for engineering and technical services (“Master Construction Inspection and Testing On-Call Agreements”) with the highest ranked (shortlisted) firms are expected to begin on or around April 12, 2023. Executed agreements are anticipated to be complete no later than May 31, 2023.
3. Services associated with the “Master Construction Inspection and Testing On-Call Agreements” resulting from this Request for Proposals (RFP) may be requested as soon as an agreement is in place with any consultant.

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. However, each firm shall affirm it can meet the accounting requirements below.
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 counted as two or more pages depending on size.
3. A single PDF (2MB maximum size) of the proposal including all attachments must be emailed to KDOT.DesignContracts@ks.gov by the proposal due date and time.
4. The subject line of the email and the PDF file name must read:
   1. “Addl-Const-Insp-OnCall-Firms_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 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 which will be used to make a selection. These will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis. Firms failing any category may not be shortlisted for negotiation, at KDOT’s sole discretion.
8. At KDOT’s option, firms may be interviewed by telephone conference call prior to being shortlisted for negotiation.

Table 1: Proposal Content
Section	Description of Intent	Page Limit
Cover Letter		1 Page
Types of Projects	Describe the types of inspection and testing that your firm desires to on an on-call basis. Identify KDOT Districts and Areas in which you would be most inclined or most able to provide these services.
Approach to Schedule	Describe your firm’s approach to perform services within tight schedule requirements, capacity to respond to service requests within days, and availability of staff to begin work urgently.
Qualifications and Experience	For key personnel anticipated to be assigned to lead tasks described herein, provide a table including: consultant employee names, current office/field locations, qualifications/education, certification categories, certification number(s), KDOT Districts where employee has previous experience, Districts/Areas employee is willing to serve.
Past Performance	Describe team’s past performance with respect to ability to: be responsive; have staff available to attend to urgent inspection needs; provide thorough documentation and follow contract administration policies and procedures; and ability to control costs on similar transportation projects, especially those performed for KDOT. Include three references and contact information.
Familiarity with KDOT Inspection and Testing	Describe team’s familiarity with KDOT’s construction inspection and testing policies and procedures. Describe familiarity with the types of work your team may be asked to inspect and any unique experience.

Table 2: Evaluation Factors
Evaluation Factor (Pass Fail)
Qualifications and experience of Project Manager and other key project team members proposed for services.
Availability to respond to the work.
Past performance history for similar projects/services for KDOT.
Note: Lack of experience with KDOT may not result in failure in this category, pending positive references from other transportation clients; negative performance history or references may result in failure.
Understanding of KDOT contract administration and closeout procedures.
Note: Lack of experience with KDOT may not result in failure in this category, pending positive references from other transportation clients and commitment from the firm to research KDOT policies and standards prior to being notice to proceed on a given work order; negative references may result in failure.
The quality and completeness of the response.

Contract Terms and Conditions

The list of consultants holding “Master Construction Inspection and Testing On-Call Agreements” as a result of this RFP shall be added to the list of on-call consultants which currently exists for this purpose. No changes will be made to the status of agreements already in effect.

A standard KDOT on-call agreement for engineering and technical services will be used. KDOT may request construction inspection and testing services via on-call service requests over a period of three years, 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 added to the list as a result of this RFP, will be stated in each agreement, and is anticipated to be a cost not to exceed $5,000,000.

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”)

Finally, each firm shortlisted must utilize 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.

Special Contract Conditions

Interested consulting firms must have employees who are experienced in inspection, sampling and testing as well as certified under the Certified Inspection and Testing Training Program described online at www.citksu.com and in the CIT Manual found at https://www.ksdot.org/bureaus/burConsMain/cit.asp.

Questions

All questions regarding this RFP shall be emailed to KDOT.DesignContracts@ks.gov.

Questions can be submitted until February 15, 2023; answers will be provided to all prequalified consultants on February 22, 2023.

Marcia Turner, P.E.
Contracts Manager
Division of Engineering and Design
Department of Transportation

Doc. No. 050881