Geotechnical and Miscellaneous Materials, Testing and Inspection Services

The City of St. Petersburg, Florida (Pinellas County) is issuing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ-26-090) for Geotechnical and Miscellaneous Materials, Testing and Inspection Services to be provided on an as-needed basis under a multi-year architect/engineering agreement. The procurement encompasses a comprehensive range of technical services including construction inspection, field inspections, laboratory services, and report preparation; geotechnical services involving soil and rock boring, sampling, and laboratory evaluation with mandatory 180-day sample storage; construction materials testing for soils, concrete, and asphalt; materials engineering services including non-destructive testing and hazardous materials analysis; and miscellaneous services such as percolation testing, pavement core sampling, pile load tests, and weld examinations. Qualified vendors must demonstrate specific technical capabilities including field density testing, concrete compressive strength testing, asphalt Marshall stability testing, soil penetration testing, grain size analysis, and environmental testing for petroleum products and metals. Key personnel requirements include a project manager and LEED or ENVISION Lead, each with a minimum of ten years of applicable experience, plus at least one substitute project manager. Minimum qualifications include Florida Department of State registration, E-Verify compliance, and specified insurance coverage comprising commercial general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate, commercial automobile liability of $1,000,000 combined single limit, and workers' compensation with employers' liability of at least $100,000 per accident. Vendors must also maintain Level 2 criminal background clearances for personnel accessing Parks and Recreation facilities, police department facilities, and Water Resources Department facilities, and personnel accessing port facilities must possess a valid federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC). The Statement of Qualifications must be submitted as a single PDF file not exceeding 75 pages, including five reference projects completed within the past five years with three current client contact references, firm qualifications, detailed project approach methodology, safety protocols, and CADD and GIS capabilities compatible with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2024, ESRI ArcMap 10.8, and ESRI ArcPro Version 3.0. The RFQ was released on March 4, 2026, with a deadline for questions on April 9, 2026, and a response deadline of April 28, 2026, at 3:00 p.m.; a non-mandatory evaluation and shortlisting is scheduled for May 13, 2026, followed by interviews and a selection meeting on May 29, 2026. Evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: Project Team and Firm Qualifications (35 percent), Experience and Reference Projects (25 percent), Project Approach (25 percent), and Business Outreach Plan (15 percent), with scoring on a 0-10 point scale for each criterion.

The City reserves the right to evaluate and qualify multiple vendors for inclusion on an approved vendors list, with City Council approval required for final award. The City encourages participation from small business enterprises (SBEs), minority-owned business enterprises (MBEs), and women-owned business enterprises (WBEs), though the Subcontractor Utilization Plan contains voluntary participation goals with no mandatory minimum level of small, veteran, minority, or women business enterprise participation required for contract award eligibility; however, vendors must submit a comprehensive Supplier Diversity and Business Outreach Plan addressing efforts to identify and engage with the City's diverse business vendors and documenting past performance with small business subcontractors within the past five years. Projects may be funded by the City of St. Petersburg, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), or other agencies, with projects funded in whole or part by non-City sources requiring compliance with the respective funding agency's requirements. The initial contract term is one year, with automatic renewal for successive one-year periods unless either party provides thirty days' notice of non-renewal; the agreement expires at the end of the third renewal term (four years maximum from the execution date), with the current agreement set to expire on May 31, 2026. No specific award value or budget range is identified in the procurement documents, as compensation will be structured through individual task orders referencing fee schedules in Appendix B on a lump sum or not-to-exceed basis, with fees and costs inclusive of all out-of-pocket expenses including transportation, lodging, materials, and documentation.