(a) General.

1. (1) The purpose of the request for proposals (RFP) is to furnish sufficient information for a short-list proposer to prepare a detailed proposal which would normally include both a technical proposal and price proposal, although some projects may only require a technical proposal based on the particular project procurement type and requirements.

2. (2) The RFP should include the:

   1. (A) Design requirements;
   2. (B) Design standards;
   3. (C) Allowable design exceptions;
   4. (D) Design services required; and
   5. (E) Project constraints related to:

(i) Traffic;

1. (ii) Utilities;

   1. (iii) The environment;

      1. (iv) Right-of-way;
      2. (v) Construction requirements; and
      3. (vi) Construction management services required.
2. (3) The intended Arkansas Department of Transportation roles and responsibilities should also be included in the RFP.
3. (4) Depending upon the size and complexity of the project, the department should consider issuing a draft of the RFP prior to the issuance of the final RFP.
4. (5) This practice encourages collaboration with short-list proposers and the refinement of the RFP.
5. (6) The review of this process may be combined with the one-on-one meeting concept described in Appendix I.

(b) Consideration of the proposer.

1. (1)

   1. (A) Developing the proposal in response to an RFP is a significant effort to the short-list proposer that should not be overlooked in overall project scheduling or underestimated in amount of resources dedicated to the task.

   2. (B) The proposal preparation portion of the procurement process is where the department has the opportunity to refine the:

      1. (i) Project components;
      2. (ii) Project scope; and
      3. (iii) Desired outcome of the project.
   3. (C) The RFP should provide a significant amount of detail about the project and the intended final product.

2. (2)

   1. (A) The primary purpose of the RFP is to outline the desired outcomes and specific requirements for the project as well as specific requirements for the proposal regarding the technical approach to executing the project and the proposed cost to complete the project.

   2. (B) It is important that the RFP request information regarding:

      1. (i) Specific design and construction actions;
      2. (ii) Intended final products;
      3. (iii) Construction staging;
      4. (iv) Traffic control; and
      5. (v) Project management plans.
   3. (C) In addition, the department should consider requesting descriptions or design development of specific project elements to a specified level to demonstrate the intent of the short-list proposer.
   4. (D) Other items, such as project management plans, safety plans, and public information plans, may be outlined as part of the proposal and submitted complete after the contract award for the review of the department.

3. (3)

   1. (A) The RFP should require the short-list proposer to prepare specific design concepts only as needed to demonstrate their project approach.
   2. (B) The requirements should include narratives, sketches, drawings, charts, and graphs to support the description of their concepts required to complete the project as represented by the proposal.
   3. (C) The level of detail required for any given component should be directly related to the importance of the component to the overall project and that importance should be reflected in the ESC developed for the proposals.
4. (4) The RFP should contain the proposal ESC so that the short-list proposers are not required to guess at how much value is being placed on an individual component.

5. (5)

   1. (A) The RFP should focus submittal requirements based on the key project goals most desired consistent with the allocation of technical points in the proposal ESC.
   2. (B) When specific information is required to properly evaluate and score a technical proposal, only then should it be included as a requirement, however, when the RFP requires an increased level of detail unnecessarily, the RFP is placing an overly heavy initial design burden on the short-list proposer.
   3. (C) Any excessive efforts and cost may not be appropriate at the level of design represented in the proposal.
   4. (D) It is acceptable to require certain technical components to simply meet the established contractual standards and be scored on the basis of pass/fail, rather than allocating points to each technical component.

   5. (E) The end product will still be required to meet the requirements outlined within the RFP but the short-list proposer can avoid placing an inordinate number of hours advancing portions of the design arbitrarily to meet the required effort for the proposal.

      1. (c) Proposal evaluation/scoring.
6. (1) The assignment of technical points and weighting factors to produce an ultimate technical score is a common method to reflect what is important to the project, the department, and reflect what areas the department desires innovation/attention on the project.
7. (2) This method can be a very effective way of conveying the department interest or perceived value to the proposer, however, care should be taken not to disproportionately overvalue a particular area of the proposal that could skew the overall results.

8. (3)

   1. (A) Areas which will receive technical points will vary with each project.

   2. (B) For example, if a primary goal is to maintain minimum public impact with construction traffic, then requiring clear, well-defined maintenance of traffic strategies/commitments is appropriate.

      1. (c) Components of an RFP.

9. (1) The general components of the RFP include:

   1. (A) Instructions to proposers (ITP):

      1. (i) General requirements;
      2. (ii) Project description;
      3. (iii) Requirements of the proposal, contents list, and evaluation criteria; and
      4. (iv) Procurement questions and clarifications;

   2. (B) Agreement:

      1. (i) Commencement of construction and construction procedures;
      2. (ii) Environmental issues/requirements and hazardous materials;
      3. (iii) Bonding and surety requirements;
      4. (iv) Warranties;
      5. (v) Payments;
      6. (vi) Scope of work changes;
      7. (vii) Damages;
      8. (viii) Project completion and acceptance;
      9. (ix) Cooperation and governance; and
      10. (x) Project schedule;

   3. (C) Technical provisions:

      1. (i) Project scope; and
      2. (ii) Project technical provisions and project special specifications/provisions; and

   4. (D) Reference material:

      1. (i) Reference information documents; and
      2. (ii) Project risk allocation matrix.
10. (2) The following sections, 27 CAR §§ 92-507 – 92-509, describe the preparation and compilation of the various components of the RFP in no particular order.
11. (3) The development of the components can occur concurrently.