ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR MAINTENANCE, OPERATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION FACILITIES

BFT is a municipal corporation, which provides public transportation services covering a 616- square mile area located in Benton and Franklin Counties. The area includes the cities of Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, West Richland, Benton City, Prosser and adjacent unincorporated areas of Benton and Franklin County with an estimated combined population in 2017 of 284,000. In 2030 the estimated population for Benton County is projected to increase to 236,007 and for Franklin County 130,284.

Disadvantaged Business Participation
BFT promotes equal employment opportunity and maximum practicable opportunity participation by Disadvantaged Business Enterprises certified by the State of Washington office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises in its Contracts.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Contractor is required to comply with all applicable Equal Employment Opportunity laws and regulations.

Ineligible Contractors
Contractor is required to certify that they or their Sub-Contractors are not on the Comptroller General’s list of ineligible Contractors.

Rejection and Waiver
BFT reserves the right to reject any or all qualifications/proposals and to waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received. This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) 25-20 may be cancelled at any time and any and all proposals may be rejected in whole or in part when it is in the best interest of BFT.

Economy of Preparation
Proposals should be prepared simply and economically, providing a straightforward, concise description of the Contractor ability to meet the requirements of the RFQ. Fancy bindings, colored displays, promotional material, etc. are not desired. Emphasis should be placed on completeness and clarity of content.

Incurring Costs
BFT is not liable for any costs incurred by the Contractor prior to issuance of a Contract.

NOTE: A & E FIRMS ARE NOT TO PROVIDE COST INFORMATION WITH THE PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL, BFT IS REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE BROOKS ACT THAT BASES THE EVALUATIONS ON FIRM QUALIFICATIONS.

The purpose of this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to identify transit-experienced architecture and engineering (A&E) firms to provide on-call planning, design, and bidding services for the Maintenance, Operations, and Administration (MOA) facility and off-site MOA support facilities, excluding those that serve passengers. The A&E firm will be required to be located within a 45-mile radius from BFT's main campus located at 1000 Columbia Park Trail, Richland, WA. These services may be sought in accordance with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations and will meet requirements of the State of Washington and rules and regulations of Ben Franklin Transit’s (BFT) PTBA.

For consideration, we encourage A&E firms to team with other firms having complementary skills to provide a full range of services as requested. Since many of these projects may utilize FTA funding, BFT encourages firms to include Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms as part of their teams. The selected A&E firm will provide full architecture design services in the areas of building and facility design and bidding, as well as full coordination and cooperation with both the BFT Team as well as their designated Construction Manager.

BFT’s initial projects may include:

• Full architectural design services for the Huntington Training Facility, located on the former Ed Frost Transit Center Property in Kennewick, WA. An update of prior analyses of the MOA facility.
• Development of a master plan for the main campus and remote facilities.
• Project budget development for new and on-going capital projects.
• Addressing zero-emissions bus and bus infrastructure needs for the agency.
• Security review and design at MOA campus and remote facilities.

A&E firm will become BFT's MOA On-Call firm after the current On-Call MOA contract ends, estimated to be April or May of 2026.