Public Notice
Kittitas County, Ellensburg WA

REQUEST FOR STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS SUPPORTING TRANSPORTATION MODELING AND PLANNING, PLANNING SERVICES AND PROFESSIONAL CIVIL ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR THE SNOQUALMIE PASS COMPREHENSIVE SAFETY PLAN

All submittals received after 10:00 AM Local Time, January 18, 2024, will be discarded

PURPOSE:

Kittitas County, in partnership with King County and Washington State Department of Transportation, is developing a Snoqualmie Pass Comprehensive Safety Plan encompassing the areas of Snoqualmie Pass and Hyak. Kittitas County is requesting Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) from qualified professionals for consulting services for the development of the comprehensive safety plan.  The consultant(s) will provide a variety of services to the County for the creation of the Snoqualmie Pass Comprehensive Safety Plan.

The Snoqualmie Pass Comprehensive Safety Plan project will include services in the following areas:

• Outreach and public involvement activities
• Transportation Modeling and Planning
• Data Collection, including motorized and nonmotorized
• Comprehensive Safety Plan for all transportation elements
• CADD support
• GIS support
• Other technical planning support

SCOPE OF PROJECT:

1. Transportation Modeling and Planning Services

The consultant must be able to provide engineers and transportation planners knowledgeable in traffic engineering and travel demand planning software and analysis and other related support and professional staff for on-call consulting to Kittitas County. These services may include but are not limited, including the services of planning, inventory, delineation, permitting, design, implementation, and construction management of mitigation.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

1. Travel demand forecasting and distribution
2. Travel demand modeling including specific knowledge of the County’s existing transportation model used in creating the County’s current twenty-year transportation plan
3. Highway safety plan development
4. Traffic report analysis and creation
5. Traffic calming devices and device deployment strategies.
6. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
7. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.

2. Planning Services

The consultant must be able to provide a variety of community planning services to Kittitas County including but not limited to: expertise implementing the Growth Management Act, code amendments, urban and rural design, community education and coordination, economic development, transportation planning, development review capabilities, GIS support, and project scheduling and coordination experience.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

1. The consultant must have extensive experience working with local governments on both current and long-range land use and transportation planning projects.
2. Demonstrated ability to conduct outreach efforts to engage community participation.
3. Successful experience implementing GIS systems, training abilities, and ability to communicate with non-technical people about GIS functions and capabilities.
4. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
5. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.
6. Formulate transportation element review and ranking criterion
7. Develop financial strategies to implement the strategies for each prioritized action plan item

3. Professional Civil Engineering Services

The consultant must be able to provide a variety of engineers, drafters, and other related support and professional staff for consulting to Kittitas County. These services may include but are not limited to survey data collection and preparation of project designs including roads, retaining walls, safety elements, hydraulics, soils and paving, and other transportation facilities and features.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

1. The consultant must have extensive experience working with local governments on both current and long-range land use and transportation planning projects.
2. Demonstrated ability to conduct outreach efforts to engage community participation.
3. Successful experience implementing GIS systems, training abilities, and ability to communicate with non-technical people about GIS functions and capabilities.
4. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
5. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.

PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTAL:

If you wish to be considered for work under this SOQ, you must be a registered consultant on the Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington – Shared Small Works and Consultant Roster (www.mrscroster.org).

If interested in providing services to the County, submit a sealed envelope to Kittitas County Public Works, at 411 N. Ruby St. Suite 1, Ellensburg WA 98926 by 10:00 am on January 18, 2024. Submittals shall include a one-page cover letter with the firm name as listed on the MRSC web site, and contact information. Submittals shall also include three copies of your Statement of Qualifications describing the firm’s or team’s ability to professionally provide the aforementioned services. Submittals will not exceed fifteen (15) pages in length and must be a minimum font size of 11. The fifteen (15) pages may be double sided.

Address submittals: 

Snoqualmie Pass Comprehensive Safety Plan

Kittitas County Public Works

411 North Ruby, Suite 1

Ellensburg, WA 98926

For your records, the County will provide a confirmation email to the contact provided in the submittal confirming receipt of your interest in the proposal. Submittals received after 10:00 AM on January 18, 2024, will be disregarded.

Kittitas County encourages disadvantaged, minority and women owned consultant firms to respond.

The County reserves the right to retain the services of the successful firm for any subsequent phases associated with this project.  The County reserves the right to reject any and all submittals.

SELECTION PROCESS AND PROPOSED SCHEDULE:

Kittitas County selection will be based upon:

1. The firm's or team's qualifications, experience, and ability to perform the work (25 points).
2. Demonstrated experience with similar projects in the past five years (30 points).
3. Detailed description of the firm’s approach to the project (25 points).
4. Experience working in Kittitas County in the past five years (20 points).
5. Ability to apply creative solutions to complicated projects (20 points).
6. Demonstrated ability to keep projects on time and within budget (20 points).
7. Demonstrated ability to communicate and work effectively with the public, staff, multi-agency teams including Washington State Department of Transportation, King County, policy, and review bodies (15 points).
8. The firm’s ability to scale the work and allocate appropriate resources resulting in the most efficient use of County funds (15 points).

Anticipated Dates and Tasks

January 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM - Deadline for SOQ submittals

January 25, 2024 - Selection of Firms to Interview

February 1, 2024 - Interviews and Reference Checks

February 15, 2024 - Select firms, negotiate, and prepare contracts

March 5, 2024 - BOCC Award of Contracts

The above noted schedule is tentative and may be changed based on the number of proposals submitted. Proposals will be evaluated immediately with final selection targeted for late February 2024.

The selection process shall be as follows:

• Submittals are reviewed and scored by the Public Works selection committee
• Selection of firms to interview may be waived if the selection committee decides to award to a single firm based on review of the submittals.
• Firms will be selected to interview if the selection committee decides that interviews are required. The specific interview format will be provided to firms in advance of interviews.
• Board of County Commission planning contract award
• The Public Works Director and/or County Engineer will negotiate a scope of the work and fee with the selected consultant.
• The selected consultant will then enter into a Local Agency A&E Professional Services Consultant Agreement with Public Works.

AGREEMENT OF SERVICES:

The selected consultant(s) will be expected to enter into a standard Local Agency A&E Professional Services Consultant Agreement. Insurance requirements are included in that agreement. The anticipated contract period shall be February 2024 – February 2026.

Kittitas County reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals or any items or part thereof or to waive any information or irregularities in the proposals.  Kittitas County shall have the sole discretion to determine the most responsible proposal.

TITLE VI STATEMENT:

The Kittitas County, in accordance with the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (78 Stat. 252,42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4) and the Regulations, hereby notifies all bidders that will affirmatively ensure that any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full and fair opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in consideration for an award.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) INFORMATION:

Kittitas County in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) commits to nondiscrimination on the basis of disability, in all of its programs and activities. This material can be made available in an alternate format by e-mailing Candie Leader at candie.leader@co.kittitas.wa.us or by calling collect 509-962-7523.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Kittitas County reserves the right to amend terms of this “Request for Qualifications” (RFQ) to circulate various addenda, or to withdraw the RFQ at any time, regardless of how much time and effort consultants have spent on their responses.

No cost or fee schedules shall be submitted with your response. Consultants will be selected on their qualifications and experience as noticed in this solicitation, with fees determined through negotiations following selection. Contracting is dependent on a negotiated mutually accepted scope of work and subsequent fee established by the consultant.

INQUIRIES:

Direct all inquiries regarding this request for services to Josh Fredrickson, County Engineer, or Kelee Hodges, Environmental/Transportation Planner at (509) 962-7523 or via e-mail:

Josh Fredrickson - josh.fredrickson@co.kittitas.wa.us       

Kelee Hodges - kelee.hodges.pw@co.kittitas.wa.us