Roadway - LinkUS - General Engineering 2026

The Department of Public Service is initiating a procurement effort that will result in the award and execution of a general engineering contract to a qualified consultant team. The intent of this contract is, for tasks related to the City’s role in the LinkUS program (see Reference 1.3.1), to provide the Department of Public Service with contractual access to additional resources and technical expertise. The contract will be a task order contract funded with an initial appropriation of **$500,000**. This appropriation is subject to approval by City Council and may be changed. The contract may be modified as additional funding becomes available.

The scope of services that follows generally describes services the selected consultant is expected to be capable to perform. With each task assigned under this General Engineering/Task Order contract, a task-specific Scope of Services and associated fee for services will be agreed to by the Department and consultant prior to proceeding.

Example tasks

• Develop Design Standards: Develop narrative design standards and standard drawings as supplements and correlated to existing City documents (see Reference 1.3.2) to cover items that are not covered by current standards, items that would otherwise typically vary from current standards, and items that are covered but need more specific guidance for transit projects. These standards will cover items such as, but not limited to, pavement, signage/striping, signal, medians, and geometric guidelines for improvements within the right-of-way.
• Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Corridor Design Advisement: Advise the City on unique scenarios such as in lane configurations and geometries based on constructed examples outside Columbus. Support the city in review of transit design proposals and propose alternatives based on transit system expertise.
• Draft Technical Memoranda: Author technical engineering memos aligning with the City’s existing design criteria, ordinances, and maintenance operations.
• Consistency Reviews: Peer-review third-party designs to ensure strict compliance with the City’s established design criteria and specifications.
• Transportation Network Planning: Assist the city in identifying LinkUS and transit-related needs for coordination with MORPC on the next edition of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (see Reference 1.3.4). [...]
• FTA Regulatory Compliance and Capital Program Support: Advise the City in regards to the federal project lifecycle, particularly the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program (New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity). Consider applicability and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Buy America provisions.
• Traffic Modeling: Perform independent traffic modeling to aid in the City’s review of full studies produced by others. Team must be capable to work in all of the following software: Sychro, VISSIM, and Transmodeler.
• Traffic Review: Produce process documents similar to the resources on the Traffic Management website (see Reference 1.3.3) but for use on outside agency roadway projects such as BRT projects.

Proposals will be received electronically via **Bonfire** until **10:00 AM** on the due date at https://columbus.bonfirehub.com/login. Only proposals received via Bonfire by the due date and time will be reviewed and considered for contract award. Proposals shall be submitted as a PDF document.

Proposals may not exceed a total of **twelve (12)** letter-size (8.5” x 11”) pages. The *Proposal Signature Form* and the *Location of Lead Offeror* form are **required** forms.

**ODOT prequalification required:** The team must be prequalified in all of the following work types and meet all applicable ODOT inspection certifications and training requirements for the listed work types at the time the proposal is submitted.

Evaluation criteria

• Location of Lead Offeror (Maximum 10 points)
• Project Manager (20 points maximum)
• Project Team (30 points maximum)
• Past Performance (Maximum 30 points)
• Understanding of Project/Project Approach (Maximum 10 points)

Bonds or prevailing wage: NO. The City MBE/WBE goal for this project is 0%.

The selected Consultant shall attend a scope meeting anticipated to be held about December 1, 2026. Notice to Proceed date: February 2027.