Christopher Dorrington, Director
2701 Prospect ▪ PO Box 201001
Helena MT 59620-1001
Date:
June 18, 2026
Subject: Request for Proposals
Traffic Design Term Contracts 2026-2030
To Whom It May Concern:
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is accepting proposals from consulting firms
interested in a term contract for performing traffic design engineering services at various
locations throughout Montana.
MDT intends to establish term contract(s) to utilize consultants on an "as-needed" basis for the
work described herein. At this time, the intention is to award five (5) agreements that will be
approximately $250,000 each, for a four-year period from August 2026 through August 2030.
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. As a rule, the prime consultant must
complete at least 50% of the work for a specific task 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 analysis and engineering services related to traffic and/or safety
engineering. The work may involve alterations to existing systems or new construction on
Department facilities. Work may include stand-alone studies, analyses and reports, project-
specific design elements to be incorporated into an MDT-led project, or stand-alone projects with
full plans, specifications, and estimate (PS&E) development. Examples of term assignment work
include the planning and engineering of signal design, traffic counts, spot improvement designs,
signing inventories, pavement marking, electrical designs (lighting, signals, closure gates,
changeable message signs, etc.) highway safety improvement projects, intersection improvement
projects (roundabouts, RCUT, J-turns, DDI, etc.), structural analysis of ancillary structures
including drilled shaft design and review, subsurface investigations (borings) and soil/rock
testing, geotechnical recommendations for ancillary structures, and structural design of custom
sign structures (cantilever, bridge, alternative support), and miscellaneous other traffic
engineering projects. The intent of this term contract is to use consultant staff to supplement in-
house resources, acting as part of the Traffic Design Section.
LOCATION
Various – Statewide
PROJECT/TASK 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
Thaddeus Lesnik: tlesnik@mt.gov
Page 2 of 7
The Department must receive the proposals for this RFP no later than 3:00 PM MST, July
21, 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
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):
June 18, 2026:
July 21, 2026:
August 4, 2026:
August 5, 2026:
RFP released
Proposals due to be submitted to MDT Consultant Design
Proposals reviewed, rated, and ranked by the evaluation committee
Consultant Selection Board meeting to select consultant(s)
There are three (3) members on the evaluation committee for this RFP (subject to change):
1. MDT Traffic Design Supervisor
2. MDT Traffic Design Supervisor
3. MDT Traffic Project 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 contract (including
subconsultants, if used) is best qualified to respond to the requirements of this contract.
Discussion should focus on the requirements for this specific contract, 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 experience as it relates to
Page 3 of 7
these services. Identify professional licensure of staff that satisfy the requirements for this
contract. Include an organization chart that indicates the staff identified for this contract,
their area of expertise, registration, and office location(s). 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. Describe any special
equipment or software you intend to use. Resumes may be considered as supporting
documentation to verify / supplement the qualifications described in the proposal.
However, scoring will be based solely on the narrative response included in the Team
Qualifications section of the proposal.
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. Include a discussion on your ability to successfully complete work under this
contract. 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:
Page 4 of 7
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.
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 (Board) at the MDT Headquarters Building. At this time, the
Board will select the most qualified firm(s) for TERM CONTRACT(S). 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(s).
SELECTION OF CONSULTANTS FOR TASK ASSIGNMENTS
If multiple consultants are selected and multiple term contracts are awarded, task or work orders
(term assignments) will be awarded through an additional qualifications-based selection
procedure. This selection procedure will be comprised of selecting a firm in accordance with the
following weighted factors:
1) Qualifications for specific Task Assignment (60 points possible)
a) Using the proposals submitted in response to this RFP and work performed with
MDT since the submittal of this proposal: an evaluation of the consultant’s
qualifications as related to the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities required for the
individual task assignment, including familiarity with the region in which the task
assignment is located. Firm office location is not the determining factor for this score.
(50 points possible)
b) As relating to this type of work, the firm’s current workload and amount of recent
work with MDT. (10 points possible)
Page 5 of 7
This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.