Consultant Services for Toll Program Management for Capital Area Regional Toll Authority (CARTA)

The Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority (CARTA) is seeking a qualified consultant to provide staff resources and technical expertise to implement and operate CARTA’s Toll Program, including supporting the on-time delivery of Yolo 80 Managed Lanes Phase 1 (Yolo 80). The scope of this procurement includes six (6) base tasks:

• Toll Program Management and General Advising
• Agreements, Toll Accounting, Revenue Recognition, and Finance
• Strategic Communications and Public Education
• Yolo 80 Toll System Construction Support
• Yolo 80 Back Office, Customer Service Center, and Traffic Operations Center Construction Support
• Yolo 80 Ongoing Operations

and three (3) optional tasks:

• Toll Tag Penetration Campaign
• Technical Advising Services
• Future Corridor Implementation

With support from a future CARTA Executive Director and SACOG administrative and accounting staff, the contract resulting from this RFP will resource CARTA as an agency. The base tasks have been designed to cover the core areas of CARTA's work and the optional tasks provide some flexibility if CARTA's needs evolve. The contract resulting from this procurement will be for three years (January 2026 - December 2028) plus two (2) option years (2029-2030). The CARTA board has authorized the execution of a $5 million not to exceed budget for the six (6) base tasks over the base three-year period. Cost proposals are required for the base six (6) tasks over the three-year base period, and for the base six (6) tasks each additional option year. Optional tasks will be budgeted and executed on a task order basis at the discretion of future CARTA board action. Cost proposals are not required for the optional tasks.

The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) is administering this procurement but the resulting contract will be between the selected firm(s) and CARTA. Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of staff from SACOG, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Yolo Transportation District (YoloTD), Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA), Placer County Transportation Planning Agency (PCTPA), and El Dorado County Transportation Commission (EDCTC).

Duties and services under the resulting contract shall not include preparing or assisting CARTA with any portion of a request for proposals, request for qualifications, or any other solicitation regarding a subsequent or additional Toll Program Management or similar consulting services contract with CARTA. Selected consultant shall cooperate with CARTA to ensure that all bidders for a subsequent contract on any subsequent phase of this project have access to the same information.

Duties and services under the resulting contract shall include overseeing the procurement of a toll system integrator. Proposers are advised that the selected consultant team will be precluded from being selected as a prime or a subconsultant for future toll system integrator services.

In January of 2024 Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), Yolo Transportation District (YoloTD), and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), created a joint powers authority (CARTA) to serve as tolling authority for the Sacramento region. While SACOG, YoloTD, and Caltrans are CARTA's initial members (and have voting seats on its board), CARTA was designed to expand membership to Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA), Placer County Transportation Planning Agency (PCTPA), and El Dorado County Transportation Commission (EDCTC) as the toll network grows. Each of these three (3) agencies has a non-voting seat on the CARTA board. All six (6) agencies actively participate in the CARTA Technical Advisory Group (TAG), an interagency executive group that oversees and guides the development of CARTA’s work.

CARTA’s primary focus is supporting the timely delivery of the Yolo 80 Project, which will add one (1) High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) 3+ lane in each direction on Interstate 80 (I-80) between the cities of Davis and West Sacramento. Yolo 80 is the first toll facility in the region and is anticipated to begin revenue service in 2028. Ultimately, toll lanes are envisioned throughout the core of the Capital region. This RFP’s scope is structured to support CARTA in delivering Yolo 80 and preparing for other managed lane projects in development. In addition, CARTA has been focused on adopting toll policy and developing a multi-year workplan and budget. These documents and recordings of CARTA board meetings are available at captollauthority.org.

Since CARTA’s creation, it has been staffed by SACOG and will continue this structure through January 2026. In February 2025, the CARTA board approved a staffing plan to hire an Executive Director in mid-2026. The selected consultant team’s project manager will serve as an interim Executive Director between SACOG staff’s management of CARTA (ending in January) and the hiring of an Executive Director (mid-2026). Until the Executive Director is hired, services solicited under this RFP will be overseen by the CARTA TAG. SACOG staff will administer the contract, including reviewing and processing invoices, until the CARTA Executive Director is hired. CARTA is expected to remain a lean organization, adding only one (1) additional finance person after toll revenue service starts. This RFP’s scope of work is designed to cover all of CARTA’s additional staffing needs.

There are or will be multiple contracts that are interrelated with the contract resulting from this RFP, with overlapping timelines. These include (but are not limited to) the Yolo 80 construction contract (held by Caltrans and primed by DeSilva Gates), the Yolo 80 Roadside Toll System and Traffic and Revenue Analysis (held by YoloTD and primed by Silicon Transportation Consultants), the Regional Tolling Equity Study (anticipated procurement by CARTA in fall 2025), and the On-Call Services Bench (anticipated procurement by CARTA in August 2025).