26-99484 RFP for Engineering Services for Medial District Lighting

Location:	Minnesota
Posted:	May 21, 2026
Due:	May 28, 2026
Agency:	City of Duluth
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	C - Architect and Engineering Services - Construction R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

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CITY OF DULUTH, MN

Monday, May 11, 2026

Request for Proposals

for

Engineering Services for Medical District Lighting Improvements

Duluth, Minnesota

RFP 26-99484

City of Duluth Project No. 2238

Proposals Due: Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 3:00 pm local time

I:\FINANCE\PURCHASING\Bids, RFPs, Contracts & Agreements\2026\26-99484 Medical District Lighting RFP\2338 RFP - DRAFT.docx

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

The City of Duluth is interested in retaining a consultant to provide professional engineering

services to complete a design of a lighting system along 2nd Street, 3rd Street, 4th Ave East and 5th

Ave E. The lighting system will be bounded by 4th Ave E, 4th Street, Superior Street, and 6th Ave

East. Consultant services are expected to include design and include limited construction support

services, as noted within this request.

BACKGROUND

The area around St Mary’s Medical Center experiences a large amount of pedestrian traffic. At

night, pedestrians walk along the sidewalk system and concerns regarding safety both along the

sidewalks and crossing streets are regular reports to City staff and hospital administration. The

City is committed to pedestrian safety and proposes to improve the lighting within the designated

medical district area. This project will design a new lighting system in this area to be constructed

and bid.

The proposed design would replace most (but not all) of the existing street lighting within these

areas, including those owned by the City and Minnesota Power. Conceptually, the City would be

looking to provide “cobrahead” style lighting at each intersection (assumed to be two at each

location listed) and pedestrian scale post-top style lighting along the sidewalks. The signal

systems within the area of study (6th Ave East at 3rd Street and 2nd Street) will remain as-is and is

generally consistent with the design goals for this project. No work will be done on 4th Street as

that would be completed as part of the on-going 4th Street reconstruction project. Please see the

attached map (Exhibit A) illustrating the area of work.

The selected consultant will be tasked with preparing the design plans and specifications,

suitable for bidding the project, and with providing limited construction administration support

during the construction phase of the project.

GENERAL PROJECT SCOPE

Consulting engineering services are expected to include all work necessary to provide final

design including plans and specifications for the project as described, as well as limited

assistance during bidding and construction services. These include, but are not limited to the

following:

1. Project Meetings, Management and Coordination

2. Project Reconnaissance

3. Preliminary and Final Engineering Design

4. Limited Bidding Assistance

5. Limited Construction Administration Assistance

These tasks will be defined in greater detail within this solicitation. All work shall be performed

in accordance with the most recent version of the City Standard Specifications and Engineering

Guidelines (available on the City of Duluth website, https://duluthmn.gov/engineering/).

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SCOPE OF SERVICES

1. Project Meetings, Management and Coordination

Proposers shall manage their effort to complete the design effort required to produce the project.

This shall include the overall management effort, project meetings and coordination with

stakeholders.

Project Management

The consultant is expected to manage their project effort in an efficient manner and

within the schedule proposed. This includes tasks such as timely invoicing, coordination

of internal resources, scheduling of the project and required resources, and providing

quality control of the deliverables.

Meetings

The consultant shall attend a minimum of two (2) meetings. This will include a kickoff

meeting with City staff and a stakeholder coordination meeting. The consultant will be

expected to prepare agendas and other meeting exhibits, schedule the meeting, and

provide meeting minutes for review. The consultant may opt to host additional, brief,

coordination meetings with City staff to ensure that the project timeline is met. Remote

meeting options, such as Microsoft Teams, can be utilized by the consultant.

Stakeholder Coordination

The consultant will be responsible for coordination with the various stakeholders for this

project. The City has identified both Essentia Health, the primary adjacent property

owner and Minnesota Power, provider of electrical power and owner of some existing

street lighting, as the primary stakeholders. The City does not expect to hold public

meetings specific to this project. Proposer shall be aware that the City is currently under

contract with Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH) to perform design services for a

reconstruction of 4th Street. Coordination with that design team may be required to

complete a cohesive project.

2. Project Reconnaissance

Proposer shall be responsible for visiting the site to identify the existing conditions. The City will

provide available as-built information for the proposer’s review. The proposer should expect to

provide some survey services in this project – both to locate existing utilities and any potential

impacts to accessible facilities that are required to complete the lighting installation. The City

will provide geotechnical information, to the extent available, for adjacent streets. Any

subsequent geotechnical work will be considered extra work and outside of the scope of this

proposal.

3. Preliminary and Final Engineering Design

The consultant will be responsible for preparing full engineering design plans and project special

provisions for this project, suitable for bidding and construction. This design will supplement

existing City standard specifications, and applicable MnDOT standards specifications and

standard plans. The City will provide boilerplate special provisions language for consultant use

in preparing these documents.

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The City has prepared this proposal with the following basic lighting assumptions:

• Each intersection will have two (2) cobrahead style lighting fixtures, located at opposite

corners. These will be standard light poles, 30-feet in height.

• Each street will have pedestrian scale lighting, of a post-top style, consistent with existing

City luminaire standards.

• This project will not replace the existing intersection lighting at the following

intersections:

o 2nd Street and 5th Avenue East

o 2nd Street and 6th Ave East

o 3rd Street and 6th Ave East

• This project will specifically replace the lighting at the intersection of 3rd Street and 5th

Ave East.

The project will specifically stop short of 4th Street in all locations, as the lighting on that street

will be addressed by the 4th Street project. The consultant can assume that all lighting work

within this project stops 75 feet away from 4th Street. The consultant may be required to perform

coordination with that consultant, and such coordination is included in the scope of work.

The consultant shall provide photometrics plans after a preliminary layout is prepared. The City

assumes a project deliverable for review at the following stages:

• 30% Design Review: Preliminary layout and photometrics. Significant design detail is

not included. Preliminary cost estimate is prepared.

• 60% Design Review: Final layout and photometrics. Final design layout review and

stakeholder coordination review. Design development cost-estimate is prepared.

• 90% Design Review: Final design review, draft project special provisions review. Final

cost estimate is prepared.

A final deliverable, after all reviews are completed, will consist of the design plans (in PDF

format) signed by the engineer of record, special provisions (PDF and Microsoft Word format)

and a final cost estimate, with individual bid items matching the bid quantities (PDF and

Microsoft Excel format). City staff will route the design plans for internal signatures.

4. Project Bidding

The City will oversee bidding the project. The consultant will be available to answer clarification

questions and if needed, preparing addendum responses. The proposers should include 16 hours

of the project manager’s time within their cost proposal for addressing questions. Actual effort

will be billed hourly as needed.

5. Construction Administration

The City is planning to provide field representation for this project’s construction phase at this

time. The consultant will be required to provide review of construction concerns and project

submittals as requested by City staff. The proposers should include 32 hours of the project

manager’s time within their cost proposal for addressing questions. Actual effort will be billed

hourly as needed.

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PROJECT COMPLETION DATES

May 12, 2026

May 26, 2026

May 28, 2026

June 4, 2026

June 15, 2026

July 31, 2026

August 28, 2026

September 25, 2026

October/November 2026

December 2026

April 2027

September 2027

November 2027

RFP Issued

Questions Due

Proposals Due

Selection of Consultant

Council Approval to Award Contract

30% Plan Review

60% Plan Review

90% Plan Review

Advertise for Bids

Receive Bids

Start Construction

Construction Completion

Submittal of Record Drawings

QUALIFICATION PROPOSAL CONTENTS

The proposal shall be submitted in the following format broken into the sections identified

below. Proposals not following the specified format will not be reviewed. No additional sections

or appendices are allowed.

• Proposers shall include three (3) paper copies of the qualification proposal with the

submittal.

o One (1) copy shall be unbound. The unbound copy may be secured with a binder

clip or other method that is easily removed for scanning.

• The proposal shall be limited to ten (10) single-sided pages, not including a cover letter.

• Proposers may opt to include one (1) single-sided page may be a single-sided 11” X 17”

page if necessary for a project layout, workplan or other graphical design.

• The separate cost proposal can be an 11” X 17” page.

• Proposals that exceed the page limit will not be reviewed.

• Proposers may use Appendix A as a cover letter, or should include all information from

Appendix A on their cover letters, including addenda acknowledgements.

The proposal format shall be as follows:

1. Goals and Objectives

A brief restatement of the goals and objectives and the project tasks to demonstrate the

responder’s review and understanding of the project.

2. Similar Project Experience

An outline of the responder’s background and experience with similar projects, providing

lighting design on roadways in urban areas.

3. Personnel

Identify key personnel to conduct the project and detail their training and work

experience. Identify how personnel proposed for this project were involved with the

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This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

26-99484 RFP for Engineering Services for Medial District Lighting

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See also