Used Railroad Rails D4

The Commonwealth of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Purchases, issued a Request for Bid (RFB) for the procurement of used railroad rails to support road and bridge construction projects. The solicitation seeks 625 pieces of 40-foot used railroad rails weighing 136 pounds or larger per linear yard of structural grade steel, totaling 25,000 linear feet that must be straight, structurally sound, and conform to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet standards specifications. Delivery is required to the KYTC District 4 Maintenance Storage Facility in Hardin County, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with prepaid freight to the specified location. The procurement process utilized a multistep competitive sealed bid and reverse auction format conducted through the eBridge bidding platform, with Phase 1 requiring unpriced technical offers and Phase 2 consisting of online reverse auction bidding for pricing. Evaluation criteria weighted price at 95 points and delivery time at 5 points, with award based on best value. Key deadlines included a written questions deadline of December 9, 2020, bid closing on December 16, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, vendor training on the eBridge platform on December 21 and 22, 2020, the electronic sealed bidding event on December 23, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. ET, and a tentative award date of January 15, 2021. Delivery was desired at the earliest possible date with a 1 percent per day penalty deducted from invoices for late delivery.

Kentucky resident bidders receive preference against nonresident bidders from states that do not provide reciprocal preference to Kentucky vendors. All bids must be submitted electronically to KYTC.Bids@ky.gov with no mail, UPS, FedEx, or hand-delivered submissions accepted, and bidders must remain valid for ninety days after the closing date. The solicitation requires submission of a signed cover page, bid information forms, certificates of authority for foreign entities, required affidavits, and documentation supporting any resident bidder or qualified bidder status claims. Awarded suppliers are obligated to pay a transaction fee of three percent of the final awarded purchase price to eBridge, which must be included in their bid pricing. The Commonwealth reserved the right to reject any or all bids, waive informalities and technicalities, negotiate directly with bidders, or accept the proposal deemed most advantageous to the Commonwealth regardless of price. This is a one-time contract with no specified renewal options, and the specific budget or award value was not disclosed in the procurement documents.