Project Information

Bid Title

2026-2029 Construction Equipment on Structures Submittal Review Term Contract

Issuing Agency

State Government of Montana

Location

Montana

Published Date

Mar 27, 2026

Closing Date

Apr 15, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Ref. #

2026-2029

Original Source

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Project Description

Title	Closes
2026-2029 Construction Equipment on Structures Submittal Review Term Contract	04/15/2026

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Christopher Dorrington, Director

2701 Prospect ▪ PO Box 201001

Helena MT 59620-1001

Date:

March 26, 2026

Subject: Request for Proposals

2026-2029 Construction Equipment on Structures Submittal Review Term Contract

To Whom It May Concern:

The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is accepting proposals from consulting firms

interested in a term contract to provide professional engineering services to review contractor

submittals for bridge construction equipment on structures. One firm will be selected to perform

the work specified herein.

MDT intends to establish a term contract to utilize a consultant on an "as-needed" basis for the

work described herein. At this time, the intention is to award one (1) agreement that will be

approximately $1,500,000, for a three-year period from June 2026 through June 2029. MDT

reserves the right to revise the number of term contracts, the contract values, or contract

timeframes, depending on the responses received. Extension(s) of contracts, by mutual

agreement of both parties, may be made at one (1) year intervals, or any interval that is

advantageous to MDT. Contracts, including any renewals, may not exceed a total of five (5)

years.

Teams may be established as necessary; however, it is expected that the prime consultant will be

capable of completing the vast majority of the work, and the proposal must clearly identify the

prime for this contract. As a rule, the prime consultant must complete at least 50% of the work

for a specific project or assignment unless written exception is given.

Montana professional engineering licensure is required for this work and must be in-hand at the

time your proposal is submitted. If this requirement is not met and clearly identified in the

proposal, your proposal will be considered non-responsive.

If your firm is interested, please submit a proposal as described herein.

Consultant Design Bureau

Phone: (406) 444–6209

Fax: (406) 444–6253

An Equal Opportunity Employer

Engineering Division

TTY: (800) 335–7592

Web Page: www.mdt.mt.gov

SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of work includes providing professional engineering services to review contractor

submittals for bridge construction equipment on structures, ensuring compliance with contract

plans, specifications, MDT standards, and applicable AASHTO guidelines. The work will

include, but not be limited to, performing independent technical load rating reviews of contractor

submittals, and reviewing the following: work plans, construction engineering submittals, shop

drawings, working drawings, product data, material certifications, and inspection reports. A

detailed list of summary of work and services required is included in Attachment A of this RFP.

LOCATION

Various – Statewide

PROJECT SCHEDULE AND DELIVERABLES

The project schedule will be developed and negotiated separately for each individual term/task

assignment. At this time, it is anticipated that deliverables will generally follow those described

in MDT’s Consultant Activity Descriptions (as applicable):

http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/webdata/external/cdb/ACTIVITY_DESCRIPTIONS/CONSULTA

NT_DESIGN_2500_MU.PDF

STANDARDS, SPECIFICATIONS, AND POLICIES

Work is expected to follow MDT’s various Manuals, Guides, and Policies. These items may be

found on MDT’s Design Consulting web page at: http://www.mdt.mt.gov/business/consulting/.

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL

Submit one (1) electronic version (Adobe© PDF format) of the proposal. Hard copy

proposals will not be accepted.

Submit the electronic version by uploading to the State of Montana File Transfer Service (FTS)

site, which can be accessed at this link: https://transfer.mt.gov. To upload to FTS, an account

must be created unless the person who is uploading already has an account. Uploading

instructions can be accessed at https://transfer.mt.gov/Home/Instructions. When your proposal

has been uploaded, the FTS system will prompt you for an email address to send to. Please send

this email of your uploaded proposal to the following individuals:

Sheryl Tangen: stangen@mt.gov

Kelly Williams: kwilliams@mt.gov

Joel Pilcher: jpilcher@mt.gov

The Department must receive the proposals for this RFP no later than 3:00 PM MST, April

15, 2026.

Regardless of cause, late proposals will not be accepted and will automatically be disqualified

from further consideration. It shall be solely the vendor's responsibility to assure delivery at the

specified office by the specified time. Offeror may request the State return late proposals at

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vendor’s expense or the State will dispose of late proposals if requested by the offeror. (See

Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM) 2.5.509.). If no request is made, late proposals become

the property of the Department. All proposals submitted on time become the property of the

Department.

The costs for developing and delivering responses to this solicitation are entirely the

responsibility of the offeror. The State is not liable for any expense incurred by the offeror in the

preparation and presentation of this submittal.

TENTATIVE RFP/SELECTION SCHEDULE

The anticipated schedule for consultant solicitation and selection for this contract is as follows

(subject to change):

March 26, 2026: RFP released

April 15, 2026:

Proposals due to be submitted to MDT Consultant Design

May 6, 2026:

Consultant Selection Board meeting to select consultant

There are three (3) members on the evaluation committee for this RFP (subject to change):

1. MDT Bridge staff

2. MDT Bridge staff

3. MDT Consultant Plans Engineer

PROPOSAL CONTENTS

The proposal must contain the information listed in this section. The proposal is limited to five

(5) pages, not including the required Appendices. A single cover jacket/title page is allowed if

desired and will not count in the page limit. Each page is defined as one side of a letter size sheet

(no larger than 8 ½” x 11”), minimum font size of 10. Evaluation of information will begin with

the first page immediately following the cover jacket/title page, and every page will be counted,

in order, from that point forward, including any table of contents or divider pages the firm wishes

to include. Once the page limit is reached, any information included thereafter will be removed

and not considered or scored. Please organize your proposal in the same order and numbering

format as shown below, which will assist MDT in reviewing your proposal:

Questions

1) Team Qualifications

Provide a discussion on how the team you propose to use for this project (including

subconsultants, if used) is best qualified to respond to the requirements of this project.

Discussion should focus on the requirements for this specific project, particularly your

team’s expertise and experience, as it relates to the work described in the “Scope of

Work” section above. Provide examples of previous related project experience as it

relates to these services. Identify professional licensure of staff that satisfy the

requirements for this contract. Include an organizational chart of your team for this

project. Also briefly discuss your compatibility of systems, software, and equipment (i.e.

CADD software, word processing software, etc.), and experience with these systems,

software, and equipment. The Department’s standard design software is Autodesk®

technology included in the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) Collection.

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Describe any special equipment or software you intend to use. Resumes may be

considered as supplemental information for scoring this question.

2) Approach to Task Assignments

Transportation work has many challenging aspects, and the development and delivery of

a successful work product that addresses and mitigates specific challenges is of utmost

interest to MDT. Discuss the challenges you foresee as they relate to this type of work,

your strategy for addressing these challenges, and your specific experience in

implementing the strategies identified. Describe your quality assurance/quality control

process. Provide a discussion on your overall strategy for delivering work in a timely

manner, including fast-tracked or emergency tasks and changing priorities.

Appendix A: Resumes

Include brief resumes for the key personnel to be assigned to the contract. Resumes are

limited to one (1) page per person.

Appendix B: Cover Page Form

Include a completed version of MDT’s standard cover page form, available at the following

location:

http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/webdata/external/cdb/MDT-CDB-002-Proposal-SOQ-Cover-Sheet.pdf

Information presented in the cover page form will not be considered in proposal scoring.

Appendix C: References

Submit references that includes a minimum of five (5) separate contracts from the past

three (3) years. If applicable, you may submit multiple contracts for a single client. Each

contract must pertain to work similar to the proposed scope of services. Include client

name, a currently employed primary contact person, an alternative contact person,

corresponding valid phone numbers and emails for both contacts, a range of contract value,

and a brief description of the work performed. If MDT needs to use these references for the

Past Performance Score (as described in the “Evaluation of Proposals” section below) and

is unable to contact the required number of references after a reasonable effort, the firm

will receive a zero for the missing reference(s).

EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

All proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the following factors:

1) Team Qualifications (100 points possible)

2) Approach to Task Assignments (50 points possible)

3) Record of past performance (30 points possible)

a) If two (2) or more MDT evaluations specific to the discipline for this contract are

available for the consultant, the average score of these evaluations will be used.

Evaluations for Project Management & Overall Performance will also be included.

b) If fewer than two (2) MDT evaluations specific to the discipline for this contract are

available for the consultant, but there are two (2) or more MDT evaluations are

available for other work disciplines, the consultant’s current overall past performance

score from MDT evaluations will be used.

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c) If there is only one (1) MDT evaluation available for the consultant, the record of past

performance score will be an average of the MDT evaluation and one (1) reference

check from the references provided in the unbound attachment.

d) If no MDT evaluations are available, the average score of two (2) reference checks

from the references provided in the unbound attachment will be used for this score.

Regardless of partnership/teaming relationships, the past performance of the prime

consultant will be the past performance scored that will be used for this score.

All Proposals will be evaluated using the following basic scoring methodology:

o Outstanding/Exceptional response: 90-100% of the available points

o Good response: 70-90% of the available points

o Average response: 50-70% of the available points

o Poor response: 30-50% of the available points

o Qualifications not clearly met: 0-30% of the available points

Following the review, evaluation, and rating of all proposals, the final results will be presented to

the Consultant Selection Board at the MDT Headquarters Building. At this time, the Consultant

Selection Board will select the most qualified firm for TERM CONTRACT. The Board may

consider any proposal scoring within 2% of another proposal as equally qualified and take into

account its knowledge of the firms’ workload, past performance, and familiarity with the specific

work to be performed in selecting the most-qualified consultant.

COMPENSATION AND PAYMENT

This contract will be administered on a cost-plus-fixed-fee or specific-rates-of-compensation

basis and MDT will make that determination on the assignment level. The contract will have a

negotiated cost ceiling to ensure cost control. The cost ceiling does not ensure or imply that the

Consultant is entitled to that entire amount. Only actual incurred hours and costs are

compensable.

Upon selection, certain financial information from the selected Consultant will be required as

part of the contract agreement.

Specific Rates of Compensation

When the specific-rates-of-compensation method is used for a term assignment,

Consultant will be required to provide the specific rates of compensation for each staff

member that will perform work for the project. Rates may be developed by the individual

or by job classification. Each rate is built by assembling the known and documented

actual elements of direct salary, indirect cost rate, and fee into an agreed upon hourly

rate. Overtime is compensable, so long as it is in accordance with Firm policies, as well

as state and federal regulations.

All individuals working on the specific assignment must be listed in the term assignment

proposal with individual specific rate of compensation. If additional staff are proposed to

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Commodity Codes

• NAICS 236220Commercial and Institutional Building Construction
• NAICS 541330Engineering Services

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