2026-2029 Design and Review of Non-Bridge Structural Items Term Contract

2701 Prospect PO Box 201001
Christopher Dorrington, Director Helena MT 59620-1001
Date: May 13, 2026
Subject: Request For Proposals
Design and Review of Non-Bridge Structural Items Term Contract 2026-2029
To Whom It May Concern:
The Montana Department of Transportation is accepting proposals from consulting firms
interested in a term contract for performing design and review services of structural, non-bridge
items on an as-needed basis.
MDT intends to establish a term contract to utilize a consultant on an "as-needed" basis for the
work described herein. At this time, the intention is to award one (1) agreement that will be
approximately $300,000, for a three-year period from August 2026 through July 2029. MDT
reserves the right to revise the number of term contract, the contract value, or contract timeframe,
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 Engineering Division
Phone: (406) 444-6209 An Equal Opportunity Employer TTY: (800) 335-7592
Fax: (406) 444-6253 Web Page: www.mdt.mt.gov

SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of work includes providing design and review services of structural, non-bridge items
on an as-needed basis through a term contract(s) via term assignment(s). Work may range from
both design during preconstruction and review during construction of various non-bridge
structural items on MDT projects including, but not limited to:
* Retaining walls
* Large culverts (box culverts, structural steel plate pipes, etc.)
* Various foundations (typically for signals, sign bridges and cantilever signs, etc.)
* RWIS (Road Weather Information System) infrastructure
* Pedestrian rail, safety rail, etc.
* Luminaire structural design
* Traffic signals (structure and foundation)
* VMS supports (structure and foundation)
* Cantilever sign support (structure and foundation)
* Sign bridge support (structure and foundation)
* Reinforced concrete design and analysis
* Other miscellaneous structural items
Design will include developing structural calculations using the appropriate guidelines and
standards (such as the LRFD), drafting of details and plans, developing specifications, and
developing cost estimates to be included in PS&E packages. Designs and deliverables will be
developed in accordance with MDT's standards and specifications and must be stamped by a
Professional Engineer registered in Montana.
Review will include reviewing approving contractor submittals for:
* Contractor designed non-bridge structural items
* Shop drawings for compliance with designed items in the construction plans package
* Structural calculations
* Material submittals
* Painting submittals
* Welding procedures
* Bolting plans and procedures
* Other miscellaneous review items during construction
Review timeline for contractor submittals will typically be two weeks.
LOCATION
Statewide
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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(C) 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
Ben Rickman: brickman@mt.gov
The Department must receive the proposals for this RFP no later than 3:00 PM MST, June
12, 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.
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TENTATIVE RFP/SELECTION SCHEDULE
The anticipated schedule for consultant solicitation and selection for this contract is as follows
(subject to change):
May 13, 2026: RFP released
June 12, 2026: Proposals due to be submitted to MDT Consultant Design
July 1, 2026: Consultant Selection Board meeting to select consultant
There are three (3) members on the evaluation committee for this RFP (subject to change):
1. MDT Consultant Project Engineer
2. MDT Bridge Staff
3. MDT Bridge Staff
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 12" 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
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(R) technology included in the
Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) Collection. Describe any special
equipment or software you intend to use. Resumes may be considered as supplemental
information for scoring this question.
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
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process. Include a discussion on the current and projected workload of key personnel and
the effects that workload would have on your ability to successfully complete work under
this contract. Reviews of contractor submittals will typically need to be completed within
two weeks and may have little or no notice of when the submittals will be received from
the contractor. Provide a discussion on your overall strategy for meeting these review
deadlines without notice of when submittals will be received, 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:
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.
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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:
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
o
Following the review, evaluation, and rating of all proposals, the final results will be presented to
the Consultant Selection Board at the MDT Headquarters Building. At this time, the Consultant
Selection 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).
INDIRECT COST RATE REQUIREMENTS
Proof of the firm's Indirect Cost Rate (overhead rate) is not required with this proposal
submittal. However, an Indirect Cost Rate may be required prior to executing a contract
according to MDT's Indirect Cost Rate Requirements:
All submitted indirect cost rates must be calculated in accordance with 23 CFR 172 for the cost
principles of 48 CFR part 31 and include the required items identified in the MDT Indirect Cost
Rate Policy located in Appendix A of the Consultant Services Manual on the MDT Internet
website.
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/webdata/external/cdb/consultant_manual/consultant-design-
manual_combined.pdf
Do not show any actual numerical financial information such as the overhead rate or
personnel rates within your proposal. Specific cost information of the firm or team should not
be part of the proposal.
AGREEMENT REQUIREMENTS
Contract agreements will generally be administered on a cost plus fixed fee basis. The contracts
will have negotiated cost ceilings. If a consulting firm is selected for a specific contract and a
contract agreement is successfully negotiated, certain financial information will be required as
part of the contract agreement. As described in the Indirect Cost Rate Requirements section
above, all Consultants and subconsultants must provide the Department with an Indirect Cost
Rate (as applicable) audited (when applicable) in accordance with 23 CFR 172 for the cost
principles of 48 CFR Part 31 and based on the firm's latest completed fiscal year's costs.
Personnel rates, profit, and direct expenses must be clearly outlined and provided to the
Department. The standard MDT agreement can be found at the following address:
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/webdata/external/cdb/forms/pdf/General-Terms-and-Conditions.pdf
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Do not submit actual numerical financial information within this proposal.
STATE OPTION TO AWARD
While the State has every intention to award a contract resulting from this RFP, issuance of the
RFP in no way constitutes a commitment by the State to award and execute a contract. Upon a
determination such actions would be in its best interest, the State, in its sole discretion, reserves
the right to:
* Cancel or terminate this RFP (18-4-307, MCA);
* Reject any or all proposals received in response to this RFP (ARM 2.5.602);
* Waive any undesirable, inconsequential, or inconsistent provisions of this RFP that would
not have significant impact on any proposal (ARM 2.5.505);
* Not award a contract, if it is in the State's best interest not to proceed with contract
execution (ARM 2.5.602); or
* If awarded, terminate any contract if the State determines adequate funds are not available
(18-4-313, MCA).
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
From the date this solicitation is issued until the consultant selection is finalized by MDT at the
Consultant Selection Board meeting, offerors are not allowed to communicate with any state
staff or officials regarding this solicitation, except at the direction of the Consultant Design
Engineer. If unauthorized contact is made and the Consultant Design Engineer determines the
context of the contact gives the firm an unfair advantage, the firm will be disqualified from the
solicitation. Contact information for the single point of contact is as follows:
Kelly Williams
Consultant Design Engineer
Montana Department of Transportation
(406) 444-7964 (Direct Line)
kwilliams@mt.gov
DBE GOALS
There are no DBE goals for this work, but firms are strongly encouraged to utilize DBE firms if
applicable. A Montana certified DBE list is available and can be found on the MDT web page,
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/business/contracting/civil/dbe.shtml.
NONDISCRIMINATION COMPLIANCE
Consultants will be subject to Federal and Montana nondiscrimination laws and regulations (see
attached notice titled "MDT NONDISCRIMINATION AND DISABILITY
ACCOMMODATION NOTICE").
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If you have any questions, please contact me at (406) 444-7964, or by email at
kwilliams@mt.gov. I look forward to receiving your proposal.
Sincerely,
Kelly Williams, P.E.
Consultant Design Engineer
Attachment
e-copies:
Mary Erchul, ACEC Executive Director-MT Chapter Jason Senn, MDT Consultant Plans Engineer
Dustin Rouse, MDT Chief Engineer Roy Peterson, MDT TA Engineer
Ryan Dahlke, MDT Statewide Project Development Engineer MDT Consultant Design Bureau file
Dave Holien, MDT Highways Engineer
Erika Wimmer, MDT Civil Rights Bureau Chief
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Rev. 01/2026
MDT NONDISCRIMINATION AND
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION NOTICE
Montana Department of Transportation ("MDT") is committed to conducting all of its business in
an environment free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. In accordance with State
and Federal law MDT prohibits any and all discrimination and protections are all inclusive
(hereafter "protected classes") by its employees or anyone with whom MDT does business:
Federal protected classes State protected classes
Race, color, religion, national origin, Race; color; national origin; familial or marital
sex, age, disability, and genetic information. status; pregnancy, childbirth, or medical
conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth;
creed; social origin or condition; genetic
information; sex, sexual orientation, gender
identification or expression; ancestry; age;
mental or physical disability; political or
religious affiliations or ideas; military service
or veteran status; vaccination status or
possession of immunity passport.
For the duration of this contract/agreement, the PARTY agrees as follows:
(1) Compliance with Regulations: The PARTY (hereinafter includes consultant) will comply
with all Acts and Regulations of the United States and the State of Montana relative to
Non-Discrimination in Federally and State-assisted programs of the U.S. Department of
Transportation and the State of Montana, as they may be amended from time to time,
which are herein incorporated by reference and made a part of this contract.
(2) Non-discrimination:
a. The PARTY, with regard to the work performed by it during the contract, will not
discriminate, directly or indirectly, on the grounds of any of the protected classes
in the selection and retention of subcontractors, including procurements of
materials and leases of equipment, employment, and all other activities being
performed under this contract/agreement.
b. PARTY will provide notice to its employees and the members of the public that it
serves that will include the following:
i. Statement that PARTY does not discriminate on the grounds of any
protected classes.
ii. Statement that PARTY will provide employees and members of the public
that it serves with reasonable accommodations for any known disability,
upon request, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act as
Amended (ADA).

iii. Contact information for PARTY's representative tasked with handling non-
discrimination complaints and providing reasonable accommodations
under the ADA.
iv. Information on how to request information in alternative accessible
formats.
c. In accordance with Mont. Code Ann. 49-3-207, PARTY will include a provision,
in all of its hiring/subcontracting notices, that all hiring/subcontracting will be on
the basis of merit and qualifications and that PARTY does not discriminate on the
grounds of any protected class.
(3) Participation by Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs):
a. If the PARTY receives federal financial assistance as part of this
contract/agreement, the PARTY must comply with applicable federal and state
laws regarding the DBEs, including but not limited to 49 CFR Part 26.
b. By signing this agreement the PARTY assures that:
The contractor, sub recipient or subcontractor shall not discriminate on
the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex in the performance of this
contract. The contractor shall carry out applicable requirements of 49
CFR part 26 in the award and administration of DOT-assisted contracts.
Failure by the contractor to carry out these requirements is a material
breach of this contract, which may result in the termination of this
contract or such other remedy as the recipient deems appropriate.
c. PARTY must include the above assurance in each contract/agreement the
PARTY enters.
(4) Solicitation for Subcontracts, Including Procurement of Materials and Equipment:
In all solicitations, either by competitive bidding, or negotiation, made by the PARTY for
work to be performed under a subcontract, including procurements of materials, or leases
of equipment, each potential subcontractor or supplier will be notified by the PARTY of
the PARTY's obligation under this contract/agreement and all Acts and Regulations of the
United States and the State of Montana related to Non-Discrimination.
(5) Information and Reports: The PARTY will provide all information and reports required
by the Acts, Regulations, and directives issued pursuant thereto and will permit access to
its books, records, accounts, other sources of information and its facilities as may be
determined by MDT or relevant US DOT Administration to be pertinent to ascertain
compliance with such Acts, Regulations, and instructions. Where any information
required of a contractor is in the exclusive possession of another who fails or refuses to
furnish the information, the PARTY will so certify to MDT or relevant US DOT
Administration, as appropriate, and will set forth what efforts it has made to obtain the
information.
(6) Sanctions for Noncompliance: In the event of a PARTY's noncompliance with the Non-
discrimination provisions of this contract/agreement, MDT will impose such sanctions as it