Sec. 223.246. REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. (a) The department shall issue a request for proposals to proposers short-listed under Section 223.245. A request for proposals must include:

(1) information on the overall project goals;

(2) publicly available cost estimates for the design-build portion of the project;

(3) materials specifications;

(4) special material requirements;

(5) a design approximately 30 percent complete;

(6) known utilities, provided that the department is not required to undertake an effort to locate utilities;

(7) quality assurance and quality control requirements;

(8) the location of relevant structures;

(9) notice of any rules or goals adopted by the department relating to awarding contracts to disadvantaged business enterprises or small business enterprises;

(10) available geotechnical or other information related to the project;

(11) the status of any environmental review of the project;

(12) detailed instructions for preparing the technical proposal required under Subsection (d), including a description of the form and level of completeness of drawings expected;

(13) the relative weighting of the technical and cost proposals required under Subsection (d) and the formula by which the proposals will be evaluated and ranked; and

(14) the criteria to be used in evaluating the technical proposals, and the relative weighting of those criteria.

(b) The formula used to evaluate proposals under Subsection (a)(13) must allocate at least 70 percent of the weighting to the cost proposal.

(c) A request for proposals must also include a general form of the design-build contract that the department proposes and that may be modified as a result of negotiations prior to contract execution.

(d) Each response to a request for proposals must include a sealed technical proposal and a separate sealed cost proposal submitted to the department by the date specified in the request for proposals.

(e) The technical proposal must address:

(1) the proposer's qualifications and demonstrated technical competence, unless that information was submitted to the department and evaluated by the department under Section 223.245;

(2) the feasibility of developing the project as proposed, including identification of anticipated problems;

(3) the proposed solutions to anticipated problems;

(4) the ability of the proposer to meet schedules;

(5) the conceptual engineering design proposed; and

(6) any other information requested by the department.

(f) The department may provide for the submission of alternative technical concepts by a proposer. If the department provides for the submission of alternative technical concepts, the department must prescribe a process for notifying a proposer whether the proposer's alternative technical concepts are approved for inclusion in a technical proposal.

(g) The cost proposal must include:

(1) the cost of delivering the project; and

(2) the estimated number of days required to complete the project.

(h) A response to a request for proposals shall be due not later than the 180th day after the final request for proposals is issued by the department. This subsection does not preclude the release by the department of a draft request for proposals for purposes of receiving input from short-listed proposers.

(i) The department shall first open, evaluate, and score each responsive technical proposal submitted on the basis of the criteria described in the request for proposals and assign points on the basis of the weighting specified in the request for proposals. The department may reject as nonresponsive any proposer that makes a significant change to the composition of its design-build team as initially submitted that was not approved by the department as provided in the request for proposals. The department shall subsequently open, evaluate, and score the cost proposals from proposers that submitted a responsive technical proposal and assign points on the basis of the weighting specified in the request for proposals. The department shall rank the proposers in accordance with the formula provided in the request for proposals.

(j) If the department receives only one response to a request for proposals, an independent bid evaluation by the department must confirm and validate that:

(1) the project procurement delivered value for the public investment; and

(2) no anticompetitive practices were involved in the procurement.

Added by Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1345 (S.B. 1420), Sec. 34, eff. September 1, 2011.

Amended by:

Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 859 (H.B. 2830), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2019.