CCMPO VT15: RFP Questions and Answers

The Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization issued a Request for Proposals on April 21, 2006 for a VT Route 15 Corridor Study. Below is a list of questions and answers received from consultants interested in submitting proposals.

For more information on these questions, or to ask a new question, please contact Susan Smichenko - ssmichenko@ccmpo.org or (802) 660-4071, Ext. 17.

CCMPO will not respond to questions on the substance of the RFQ, which are submitted after 5pm, May 18, 2006 to ensure adequate time for all interested parties to review the answers.

1. What is the public outreach consultant’s (Third Sector Associates) role in the Route 15 Corridor Study?

To date, Third Sector Associates has been assisting CCMPO in scheduling and facilitating stakeholder and Plan Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings and preparing meeting minutes. After a contract is awarded for the study, Third Sector will continue to work with the MPO and the selected consultant on the following tasks:

1. Assist CCMPO staff and consultant team in identifying opportunities and drafting a plan for public involvement.
2. Public meeting logistics including locations, notes and minutes.
3. Continue to work with the stakeholders’ group and PAC attending meetings and preparing minutes.
4. Prepare a final report on the public involvement process.

2. How should the transit consultant’s (TranSystems, Inc.) scope of work be accounted for in the proposal?

CCMPO intends to use CCTA’s transit consultant, TranSystems, Inc. for the Route 15 project. TranSystems will be paid by CCMPO through their task order contract with CCTA. TranSystems is working on a Scope of Work for the transit portion of project and the selected consultant will be asked to integrate that into their Scope of Work prior to initiating a contract. Therefore, your team’s proposal and presentation should discuss integration plans for the transit consultant and the transit component, but does not need to include the details for the transit-related portion of the scope.

3. What is the CCMPO’s Regional Transportation Model referred to in the RFP?

The CCMPO recently updated the regional transportation model to a new software platform, TransCAD . Details on the model update are available at the following link: http://www.ccmpo.org/modeling/.

4. Will base year and future network projections be available for the study?

Yes, the plan is to use the network and land use assumptions for base year and future planning projections being prepared as part of the Circ Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to maintain consistency with other projects currently underway in the County. Since the Circ EIS project is not yet complete and the recommended alternatives have not yet been determined, discussions will be held with the PAC and the selected consultant regarding the future network. It is likely that analyses will be required both with and without the circ highway in the future network to understand its impacts on the corridor.

5. Two different dates are listed in the RFP as the due date – which is correct?

The correct due date for the proposals is Thursday 25 May, 2006 @ 3:00pm.

6. What work is anticipated for the economic impact evaluation of the proposed strategies?

The deliverable should include cost estimates for the alternatives.

7. The RFP indicates that $15,000 is budgeted for public involvement work by the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (CCMPO) public involvement consultant and $18,000 for the Chittenden County Transportation Authority’s (CCTA) on-call consultant. Could you please clarify if this is to be subtracted from the $150,000 budgeted for the project or is in addition to the $150,000 budget?

The estimated budget for both the public involvement consultant and the transit consultant should be subtracted from the $150,000 total budget.

8. Based on the response to questions already posted on the CCMPO Website, should we assume that the consultant for the Route 15 Corridor Study will only need to plan and prepare the technical aspects of the public involvement meetings and lead the actual public involvement process during the meeting?

Yes, your assumption is correct.

9. Will the CCMPO public involvement consultant provide other types of public involvement in addition to organizing public work sessions?

Yes, Third Sector Associates will write newsletter articles, press releases and collect and post all comments, emails and letters from the public on the CCMPO website. They will work with the consultant on outreach to the business community as well, including arranging meetings with specific business groups.

10. Can you provide an estimate of how many of the numerous roads that feed into Route 15 in the Study Area are considered “feeder routes” as used in item number 2 at the bottom of page 1 of the RFP?

We will rely on the consultant to give us feedback on which feeder routes should be considered for the corridor study.

11. Can you provide an estimate of how many different alternatives we should anticipate when analyzing the future network? (We anticipate that there may be more than just simple “with” and “without” alternatives to be considered.)

At this time, it is not possible to estimate the number of alternatives to be analyzed for the future year analysis.

12. Could you provide a listing of the members of the Route 15 Stakeholders Committee?

The current list of stakeholders is listed below:

Mayor Clem Bissonnette, City of Winooski
Gerry Myers, Winooski City Manager
Michael O’Brien, Winooski CCMPO Board Rep
Al Voegele, Colchester Town Manager
Bryan Osborne, Colchester Director of Public Works
Marc Landry, Colchester CCMPO Board Rep
Dale Arango Essex Junction CCMPO Rep
Charles Safford, Essex Junction Village Manager
Dennis Lutz, Public Works Director, Essex
Todd Odit, Assistant Town Manager, Essex
Jeff Carr, Essex CCMPO Board Rep
Chris Cole, CCTA
Aaron Frank, CCTA
Scott Johnstone, CCMPO
Greg Brown, CCRPC
Samantha Tilton, CCRPC
Marilyn Cormier, Saint Michaels College
David Cutler, Saint Michaels College
Robert Gingras, Vermont Air National Guard
Linda Seavey, UVM
William Ballard, UVM
David Grimm, Champlain Valley Exposition
Jim Gometz, Champlain Valley Exposition
George Verdon, FAHC
Dawn LeBaron, FAHC
Bob Penniman, CATMA
Eleni Churchill, VTrans
Roger Thompson, VTrans
Jeff Munger, Senator Jeffords’ staff
Robert Paquin, Senator Leahy’s staff

last updated: 15 May 2006