Active SLED Opportunity · KANSAS · CITY OF LAWRENCE
AI Summary
The City of Lawrence seeks professional engineering firms for on-call design and construction services at its water and wastewater treatment plants. The contract supports critical repairs, improvements, and process optimizations to ensure operational resilience and regulatory compliance. Proposals are due by May 5, 2026.
The City of Lawrence Municipal Services & Operations (MSO) Department is seeking proposals from qualified professional engineering firms to provide on call comprehensive design and construction phase services. This (renewable) contract covers critical repairs, improvements and process optimizations at the City's primary water and wastewater treatment facilities:
The City aims to ensure long term operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and alignment with the City's Strategic Plan regarding environmental sustainability.
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant projects are identified and funded each year with revenue bonds (CIP Projects) or annual operational cash (approximately $1.0 M in water and wastewater per year, each respectively), dependent on scope and budget. Firms may be contracted to provide engineering services for CIP projects or other smaller maintenance projects that include review, evaluation, recommendation, construction plans, specification assembly, and inspection for areas including, but not limited to: structural concrete evaluation and repair, treatment process equipment review and replacement, electrical upgrades or maintenance, coating installations, site and roadway improvements, lead and asbestos testing and abatement.
Addendum 1 follows the preproposal meeting held on 4/16/26. It consists of the agenda, attendance, Q&A to date, and a blank sample of the City's engineering services agreement.
Demonstrate experience with similar on-call services with other water or wastewater utility organizations and describe specific projects (3-5) completed under on-call service contracts. Emphasize on multi-discipline work, responsiveness, and successful deliveries. Be specific in the services that firms are able to provide in house, or partnerships for wider variety of services. Provide client references for each applicable project with current contact information.
(Up to Four Pages for Water and/or Four Pages for Wastewater)
Qualifications, experience, and organization of individual key personnel assigned to the proposed contract. Each person should demonstrate knowledge of process, treatment, materials science, electrical, regulatory and/or structural repair.
Describe the teams current commitments, ability to take on new tasks, and ability to respond promptly and effectively. Identify members of team that will serve as main points of contact for proposed on-call services with the City of Lawrence.
(Up to Four Pages for Water and/or Four Pages for Wastewater)
Demonstrate understanding of on-call services requirements and treatment facilities. Describe the approach to how the firm will execute task orders, coordinate across disciplines, QA/QC, and communicate with City staff. Discuss QA/QC procedures, coordination across disciplines, approach to managing multiple and/or urgent assignments, communication and project management approach.
(Up to Two Pages for Water and/or Two Pages for Wastewater)
Identify disciplines the firm can provide and how services will be delivered (in-house or subconsultant). Provide brief description of capabilities, and Discipline Matrix (Required): Indicate Prime / Sub / Not Provided for:
Familiarity with local design criteria, City of Lawrence specific regulatory limits and permitting, construction practices and City of Lawrence water and/or wastewater treatment knowledge and challenges.
(Up to Two Pages for Water and/or Two Pages for Wastewater)
Shortlisted firms may be interviewed to evaluate team structure, communication, understanding of services, problem solving strategies and readiness.
Provide the requested Relevant Firm Experience & Past Performance, Team Structure, Capacity & Availability, Approach & Understanding, Technical Capabilities/Disipline Coverage, and Local Knowledge as described in the Evaluation of Submittals of this Request for Proposals as a single upload consisting of up to 26 pages. DO NOT INCLUDE COST INFORMATION.
Upload your cost proposal here, including a detailed breakdown of hourly rates, applicable fees, and any other relevant costs associated with the requested engineering services of the RFP.
The cost proposal must be submitted separately. Failing to separate cost from the rest of the proposal documents could result in the submittal not being considered.
If awarded a contract and purchase orders are to be directed to an address other than the address listed in your Vendor Profile, indicate mailing address and telephone number below.
Bidder submits this proposal in accordance with the terms, conditions, and requirements stated herein. The Bidder hereby certifies it does not have any substantial conflict of interest sufficient to influence the bidding process on this proposal. A conflict of substantial interest is one which a reasonable person would think would compromise the open competitive bid process.
Bidder or any person associated with the Bidder in the capacity of owner, partner, director, office, principal, manager, auditor, manager or any position involving the administration of federal, state or local funds:
Are not currently suspended, debarred, voluntarily excluded or disqualified from bidding by any federal, state or local agency;
Have not been suspended, debarred, voluntarily excluded or disqualified from bidding by any federal, state or local agency within the past three years;
Do not have a proposed debarment pending;
Within the past three years have not been convicted or had a criminal or civil judgement rendered against them by a court of competent jurisdiction in any matter involving fraud, anti-trust violations, theft, official misconduct, or other offenses indicating a lack of business integrity or business honesty; and
Are not currently indicted or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by federal, state or local government with fraud, anti-trust violations, theft, official misconduct, or other offenses indicating
a lack of business integrity or business honesty; and
Have not had one or more federal, state or local government contracts terminated for cause or default within the past three years.
A detailed response for any item in which the vendor has a positive answer must be included in “Exceptions to the Bid, if any” and may be marked confidential.
Bidder certifies the above information is true and correct to the best of their knowledge. They also certify they hold authority to contract with the City of Lawrence Kansas.
Is your business registered to do business in the State of Kansas? This process allows companies formed in other states to legally transact business in the State of Kansas.
If you are not currently registered, please see https://sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/FA.pdf for more information.
The Business Entity ID is NOT the same as a TIN, FEIN or SSN.
Enter your Kansas Business Entity Number here.
Upload a current copy of your W-9 here.
Was the length of the initial contract term? State number of years both in numerical and written or 'until completion'
Will there be a Pre-Bid Meeting?
Do you want to use OpenGov's Electronic Pricing Table or have the vendors upload a Cost Proposal sheet?
What are you purchasing?
Q (Audit Requirements Discrepancy Between RFP and City's Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C)): There are some discrepancies between the "audit" in the RFP and the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C), including: The RFP states "AUDIT The City shall have the right, upon reasonable notice to Contractor, to audit, at any time, up to one year after payment of any invoice, Contractor’s records relating to expenses incurred in connection with the performance of the Contract Services provided hereunder. " Section III, Article B.9. of the City's On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) states "Inspection of Documents: The Consultant shall maintain all Project records for inspection by the City during the Agreement period and for three (3) years from the date of final payment. " Please confirm the "audit" and document retention duration requirements in the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) will govern for this Contract.
A: In the event of any inconsistency of the terms and conditions between the RFP and the final, executed Engineering Services Agreement, the terms of the executed Agreement shall control.
Q (Exhibit A to City's Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C)): Exhibit A currently included with the City's Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) attached to the RFP appears to be based on a transportation related on-call engineering services project, not a WTP and WWTP on-call engineering services project as described in the scope in the RFP. Please provide an updated Exhibit A that aligns with the scope of this project.
A: See addendum 1
Q (Insurance Requirements Discrepancy Between RFP and City's Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C)): There are some discrepancies between the insurance requirements listed in the RFP and the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C), including: 1. Professional Liability Insurance. There are no professional liability insurance requirements listed in the RFP, but there are such requirements listed in the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C). 2. Commercial Liability Insurance, General Aggregate. The RFP indicates a "General Aggregate Combined Single limit" of $1,000,000 is required, but the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) only requires a "General Aggregate" of $500,000. 3. Insurance Ratings. There are differences between the RFP and City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) for the policyholder rating and the class of financial rating. Please confirm the insurance requirements listed in the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) will govern for this Contract.
A: In the event of any inconsistency of the terms and conditions between the RFP and the final, executed Engineering Services Agreement, the terms of the executed Agreement shall control.
Q (Indemnification Clause Discrepancy Between RFP and City's Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C)): There is a discrepancy between the indemnification clause in the RFP and City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) mainly regarding the “duty to defend” clause. The RFP states "INDEMNIFICATION Contractor agrees to defend, indemnify, and otherwise hold harmless the City, its commissioners, officers, employees, and agents from claims, actions, damages, costs, liabilities, settlements, judgments, expenses, or lawsuits, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, but only to the extent that such are caused by Contractor’s negligent or intentional conduct while performing under this Agreement. (For the purposes of this Section, Contractor means Contractor or any person acting in behalf of Contractor or for whom Contractor is responsible." Section V, Article E.1. of the City's On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) states "Indemnify and Hold Harmless: For purposes of this Agreement, the Consultant hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the City and its employees and officials from any and all loss to the extent caused or incurred in whole or in part as a result of the negligence or wrongful acts of the Consultant, its officers, subsidiaries, employees and subconsultants/assignees and their respective officers and employees, in the performance of services pursuant to this Agreement including any Supplemental Agreements or Task Orders executed under this Agreement. In the case of any claims against the City or its employees and officials indemnified under this Agreement including any Supplemental Agreements or Task Orders executed under this Agreement, by an employee of the Consultant, its officers, subsidiaries, or subconsultant/assignees, the indemnification obligation contained in this Agreement shall be limited to those losses caused by the negligence of the Consultant but shall not be limited by any limitation on amount or type of damages, compensation or benefits payable by or for the Consultant, its officers, subsidiaries, or subconsultant/assignees, under workers’ compensation acts, disability benefit acts, or other employee benefit acts, as allowed by law. The Consultant’s obligation hereunder shall not include amounts attributable to the fault or negligence of the City or any third party for whom the Consultant is not responsible." Please confirm the indemnification clause in the City’s Sample On-Call Engineering Services Agreement (Attachment C) will govern for this Contract.
A: In the event of any inconsistency of the terms and conditions between the RFP and the final, executed Engineering Services Agreement, the terms of the executed Agreement shall control.
Q (Evaluation Criteria No. 1 Clarification): Evaluation Criteria No. 1 listed in the RFP currently states "Relevant Firm Experience & Past Performance (4-8 pages), Demonstrate experience with similar on-call services with other water or wastewater utility organizations and describe specific projects (3-5) completed under on-call service contracts. ..." Please advise if the experience with similar services and descriptions of specific projects can also be from projects completed under other contracting mechanisms such as qualifications-based selections.
A: It is our preference that relevant on-call experience with other utilities or municipalities is shared. However, if your firm has project experience that is relevant to the scope of work and services that may be required for on-call services, please describe and explain the relevance.
Q (Cover Letter): Does the City prefer a cover letter be included and if so, does it count toward the page limit?
A: see addendum 1
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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