Equipment Rental - Tree Grinding w/Op-STATE

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Purchases, issued a Request for Bid (RFB) on behalf of Highway District 10 for equipment rental services with operators specializing in tree grinding and vegetation management across ten counties including Breckinridge County. The solicitation encompasses nine line items of specialized equipment including a tree grinder mounted on a large excavator, track mulcher, whole tree chippers, rotating tree shear, telescoping tree trimmer, long boom excavator, chainsaw operator/herbicide applicator services, and a standard excavator. Each line item requires 500 hours of service annually (1,000 hours for the telescoping tree trimmer), with vendors required to bid on all line items simultaneously. Pricing shall be submitted on an hourly basis covering equipment rental, operator, fuel, maintenance, and repairs, with the state paying only for actual hours of equipment use. The solicitation was issued on June 20, 2023, with written questions due by June 28, 2023, and electronic bids due by July 12, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The tentative award date is July 25, 2023, with the initial contract period running from August 1, 2023, through July 31, 2024, and four optional one-year renewal periods available. Award selection will be based on best value scoring, allocating 95 points to price and 5 points to response time. Vendors must guarantee a minimum of eight hours per work order, provide equipment within five calendar days of notification, maintain general liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence, carry Kentucky workers' compensation insurance, and submit responses entirely through the Kentucky Vendor Self Service system.

Kentucky resident bidders receive reciprocal preference per KRS 45A.494, and qualified bidders may receive additional preferences under 200 KAR 5:410. All bidders must complete and submit an Annual Affidavit attesting under penalty of perjury that they have not violated Kentucky campaign finance laws and that contract acceptance will not violate any such provisions; the affidavit must be notarized and remain effective for one year from execution. No incumbent vendors or current contractors are identified in the solicitation documents. Vendors are required to submit certificates of insurance within ten days of intent to award, and the state reserves the right to impose a $1,000 per day penalty for failure to meet response deadlines. All bids must be submitted electronically with no more than 65,000 KB per file and up to ten documents per submission; vendors will receive email confirmation upon successful submission and may track response status through their VSS account. The specific award value or budget range for this procurement is not disclosed in the available documents, as bidding will be based on actual hourly rates and hours utilized by the state during the contract period.