Environmental Consulting Services

The City of Madison, Wisconsin, through its Finance Department Purchasing Services, is seeking environmental consulting services via a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP 8914-0-2020-BG) to support city-owned properties, potential property acquisitions, and right-of-way construction activities. The comprehensive environmental consulting services will include Phase 1 and Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), site investigations, remedial action planning, and contamination oversight during construction projects. Qualified firms must provide detailed unit pricing for various environmental consulting services, including vapor testing, with an emphasis on comprehensive project budgets that incorporate equipment, laboratory costs, and subcontractor expenses. The evaluation criteria will heavily weight qualifications, experience, and references at 65% of the total score, with cost proposals accounting for 30% and local preference contributing 5%. Key procurement dates include a questions deadline of January 27, 2020, answer postings by February 3, 2020, and a proposal submission deadline of February 14, 2020, at 2:00 PM CST. Bidders must submit both hardcopy and electronic proposals to the City of Madison Purchasing Services.

The contract is anticipated to award to 2-3 qualified environmental consulting firms, with no specific set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises noted. However, contractors with 15 or more employees must comply with the City's Affirmative Action requirements and potentially file an Affirmative Action Plan if annual aggregate business with the City reaches $50,000 or more. Vendors must provide professional liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 with prior acts coverage and maintain various other insurance types, including Commercial General Liability and Business Automobile Liability. The contract term is three years, with annual percentage price increases permitted, and the total contract amount is estimated between $50,000 to $100,000 based on previous years' activity, though no minimum contract volume is guaranteed. The bid summary indicates that SCS Engineers and TRC Environmental Corporation were ultimately awarded the contract, with SCS Engineers achieving the highest overall score. Local businesses registered in Dane County receive a 5% scoring advantage, which was a factor in the final vendor selection. Selected firms will be asked to submit project-specific scopes of work and budgets, with the City reserving the right to either request competitive bids from awarded firms or select a single firm based on project schedule and capacity.