Highland Park Rising Main 3 Restoration

The City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works, on behalf of Allegheny County, is soliciting proposals through Request for Proposal #2025-RFP-089 for the Highland Park Rising Main 3 Restoration project, a forest restoration initiative spanning approximately 2 acres. The project encompasses clearing and restoring a deforested corridor previously used for water main replacement work, with deliverables including the removal of dead trees and invasive species from 0.5 acres, planting approximately 2,000 trees and shrubs on 1.5 acres with native species such as Bottlebrush Buckeye, Eastern redbud, Spicebush, and Tupelo, incorporating 1 ton of biochar into forest soils, installing individual tree protection measures, and providing five years of ongoing maintenance including watering (not to exceed 20 total events during the first two years), twice-yearly invasive species suppression, and monthly deer protection maintenance. Qualified vendors must provide containerized tree stock grown within 75 miles of Pittsburgh, comply with ANSI A300 standards, and implement the specified restoration techniques. The evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: firm qualifications (10%), project team qualifications (10%), project approach (30%), cost proposal (40%), and MWDBE/VOSB good faith effort (10%). A pre-proposal meeting is scheduled for April 17, 2025, at 10:00am via Microsoft Teams, with written questions due by April 24, 2025, and proposals due by May 5, 2025, at 3:00pm. Contract award is anticipated in May 2025, with a comprehensive 12-month warranty period requiring contractor replacement of any missing, dead, or unsatisfactorily performing plants.

The City of Pittsburgh has established diversity participation goals and encourages submissions from minority-owned businesses (18%), women-owned businesses (7%), veteran-owned businesses (5%), and LGBTQIA+ small businesses (3%), with good faith effort documentation required as part of the evaluation process. No specific incumbent vendors or budget ranges are identified in the available documentation. The project requires five years of commitment from the selected contractor, concluding with the removal of all tree protection materials (except naturally split tree tubes) at the end of year five to ensure comprehensive restoration and long-term site success.