Sewer Infrastructure Projects

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AND QUALIFICATIONS THE CITY OF COLUMBUS SEWER INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS INTRODUCTION In accordance with IC 5-23-5, the City of Columbus (the "City") is issuing this Request for Proposals and Qualifications (the "RFPQ") seeking proposals and statements of qualifications from qualified offerors for the development and construction of public drinking water infrastructure improvements throughout the City. The public infrastructure to be constructed may include wastewater treatment plant improvements, sewer mains, lift station improvements, and similar infrastructure (all such infrastructure collectively referred to herein as the "Infrastructure" and the development and construction of the Infrastructure being referred to as the "Project"). The Infrastructure to be constructed will be finalized during a scoping period with the selected development team. The City has multiple facilities that potentially need improvements but have limited funds to do so. The ultimate scope, budget, and type of project(s) will be determined during the scoping period, at which time the City will determine the most feasible and important project(s) to approve for construction. The City, in its sole discretion, may select one team or multiple teams to enter into the scoping period and may “mix and match” responding teams with appropriate projects as determined during the scoping period. As part of the required scoping period deliverables, the selected team(s) must provide constructability analysis, budgets, schedules, and other necessary information for the City to determine a priority list of the potential Projects. The City anticipates entering into a public-private partnership agreement with an offeror pursuant to IC 5-23 to provide the work, labor, equipment, and materials to develop and construct the Project within the budgetary and the time limitations required by the City. The selected offeror will be required to obtain a payment bond in an amount not less than one hundred percent (100%) of the final cost of the Project and a performance bond in an amount not less than fifty percent (50%) of the final cost of the Project. For the avoidance of doubt, in the context of this RFPQ, the term "develop" as defined by IC 5-23-2-5.5 shall mean to install and construct the Project Infrastructure, and the term "construct" as defined by IC 5-23-2-4 shall mean the process of building and assembling the Project Infrastructure.     RFPQ PROCESS, TIMELINE AND SCOPING PERIOD The anticipated timeline for selection of a developer and execution of a public-private partnership agreement for the development and construction of the Project is as follows:  


Day 1
First publication of notice of the RFPQ in the local newspaper.

Day 8
Second publication of notice of the RFPQ in the local newspaper.

Day 15
Deadline to submit proposals by 3:00 p.m.

Day 36
Most qualified offeror is selected by City’s committee (the “Committee”).

Day 37
Scoping Period with selected offeror begins.

As long as necessary
Scoping period deliverables are assembled by the selected offeror, to include budgets, design, and coordination assistance with the City.

Upon receiving satisfactory scoping period deliverables
Selected offeror notified of recommendation to award public-private agreement.

7 days prior to public hearing
Notice of public hearing on recommendation to award a public­ private agreement published in local newspaper at least 7 days prior to public hearing and basis for recommendation available for inspection and copying at Columbus City Utilities’ office.

7 days after notice is published
Public hearing before the Committee to consider the recommendation to award a public-private agreement to selected offeror and consideration and approval of the BOT agreement.



  All offerors will be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals; provided, however, offerors shall not contact any City official or employee during the period from the issuance of this RFPQ until the most qualified offeror is notified of selection by Committee. The final scope of the Project is to be determined in the scoping period described in the timeline above (the "Scoping Period"). The Scoping Period is anticipated to be a very intense and fast-paced process, with the goal of construction commencing Spring of 2026. The schedule will ultimately be determined during the Scoping Period, as it will be dependent upon the several milestones coordinated by the City. Accordingly, during the Scoping Period, the selected offeror must be readily available, willingly share information, and actively engage with the City in order to finalize the scope, schedule, and costs of the Project. Proposals shall include the fees that would be charged, if any, for participating in the Scoping Period, as further discussed below. All data, information and materials collected, assembled, prepared, and exchanged during the Scoping Period shall be solely owned by the City, and, by submitting a proposal, offerors release all rights in any such items to the City, and the City may use the information from the proposals and Scoping Period for its use and benefit. As the Scoping Period concludes, the City will request that the selected offeror submit a final and best offer to include pricing to develop and construct the Project and then engage in further negotiations leading to a guaranteed maximum price ("GMP"), time schedule, and schedule of values for the development and construction of the Project. A recommendation to award an agreement to develop and construct the Project to the offeror with a GMP, time schedule, and schedule of values that is advantageous and acceptable to the City may then be made to the Committee. In the alternative, a recommendation may be made to award an agreement to develop and construct a distinct phase of the Project, including a recommendation to award an agreement for different phases of the Project to separate offerors, in which case each of the awarded offerors shall be expected to coordinate their work on the phase awarded to them with any and all other offerors accordingly. The foregoing notwithstanding, the City reserves the right pursuant to IC 5-23-5-8 to terminate this RFPQ process at any time without making a recommendation to award an agreement to any offeror. Pursuant to IC 5-23-5-6, the City will not disclose the contents of proposals received in response to this RFPQ prior to making a recommendation to the Committee regarding the award of agreements, if any. If this RFPQ process is terminated without recommendation for an award as provided for above, then pursuant to IC 5-23-5-12 the City may, at its option, either return proposals to the offerors without disclosing the contents of the proposals, or it may retain the proposals in which case the contents thereof become subject to public disclosure. All of the foregoing decisions by the City may be made at their sole discretion. PROPOSAL FORMAT AND CONTENTS; SUBMITTAL Notice is hereby given that Sealed Proposals for Project will be received by the City, until September 10th, 2025, at 3pm, local time. Proposals will only be accepted through the electronic bidding system, Euna Procurement, powered by Ion Wave. All responses are due prior to the published closing date and time. No mailed, emailed, faxed, hand delivered, or late responses will be accepted. To register with Ion Wave, view current City of Columbus bid events, submit a proposal, or view plan holders, please visit https://columbusin.ionwave.net/. The Proposals will be publicly unsealed at 1111 McClure Road. Copies of the RFPQ Documents may be examined without charge at https://columbusin.ionwave.net/. The City of Columbus exclusively uses Euna Procurement, powered by Ion Wave for the notification and dissemination of all solicitations. The receipt of solicitations through any other means may result in the receipt of incomplete specifications and/or addendums, which could ultimately render the bid/proposal non-compliant. The City of Columbus accepts no responsibility for the receipt and/or notification of solicitations through any other means. Proposals shall not exceed 20 pages in length, and shall include the following: •Letter of Interest and General Information o Provide a cover letter expressing the offeror’s interest in the Project and including the offeror’s general information including name, principal office address, and contact information for a designated point of contact, including telephone number and e-mail address. • Experience o Include a general overview of the offeror’ s organization, including type of organization, company, overview, and an organizational chart. If the proposal is submitted by a team or joint venture, include such information for each member thereof. o Describe the offeror’s experience working on construction projects with local government units in Indiana. Demonstrate the offeror’s experience with projects of similar scope and scale. Include a description of at least three (3) such projects that the offeror has successfully developed and constructed. o Identify key members of the offeror who will work on the Project, including a project manager with the availability, capacity, and experience to manage the Project. o Provide references. Provide the telephone number and e-mail address of a reference contact for each of the projects described above. • Financial Capacity o Demonstrate the offeror’s responsibility and financial ability to develop and construct the Project in a timely and quality manner by providing information concerning the offeror’s general financial and credit condition. • Project Approach o Describe the offeror’s approach to developing and constructing the Project within a timely and quality manner, including coordination with engineering consultants, City Utility operations, utility providers, and subcontractors. o Describe the offeror’s approach to project management for multiple infrastructure projects with different construction timelines and different designers. o Describe offeror’s approach to communication with the City. • Scoping Period Fee o Offerors may request a fee to defray their costs of participating in the Scoping Period if they are selected (a “Scoping Period Fee”), with the understanding that such a request and the amount requested is among the criteria upon which proposals will be evaluated. In such event, invoices from the selected offeror for the Scoping Period Fee shall not be submitted until the conclusion of the Scoping Period. o The City will not pay a stipend or otherwise reimburse offerors for the costs of preparing and submitting a proposal, and all such costs will be at the sole cost and expense of each offeror. • Additional Information o Offerors may include in their proposals any other information that they deem pertinent. Proposals need not contain Project pricing information, as that will be refined and determined during the Scoping Period and requested later in the Scoping Period process. Offerors will not be required to submit a bid bond, certified check, or other evidence of financial responsibility with the proposal. PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA Proposals will be evaluated by the Committee. Each member of the Committee will individually score each proposal on a scale of 0 to 100 based on his or her evaluation of the proposal, as follows:

Criterion
Weighted Score

Experience: Offeror’s demonstrated experience developing and constructing public projects of similar scope and scale.
30%

Financial Capacity: Offeror’s demonstrated responsibility and financial ability to develop and construct the Project in a timely and quality manner.
20%

Project Approach: Offeror’s approach to developing and constructing the Project.
30%

Scoping Period Fee
20%

Total
100%

Thereafter, the Committee will hold one or more meetings to discuss the contents of the submitted proposals and the members' individual scoring of each proposal, with the goal of selecting the most qualified offeror to participate in the Scoping Period. The scoring and deliberations of the members of the Committee are confidential.