Wasting no time, DOT releases 4 RFPs for RhodeWorks

PROVIDENCE – A day after Gov. Gina M. Raimondo signed legislation authorizing the RhodeWorks bridge and overpass repair program, the state Department of Transportation late Friday afternoon posted four advertisements seeking private companies or consultants to help carry out the work.
The program will establish tolls for tractor-trailer trucks using Rhode Island’s major highways and roads, to help finance the repair and replacement of aging bridges across the state. The work is expected to be financed with $300 million in state borrowing against new federal revenue and the tolls.
According to a news release from the state agency:
The DOT is seeking a “Toll Facility Consultant” that would perform site evaluation work, permitting and develop specifications for the toll gantries and tolling systems. The consultant would also help prepare another request-for-proposal for a company to design, build, operate and maintain the gantries and tolling systems. This work is expected to take six months.
A second request-for-proposals seeks an “Investment Grade Traffic and Revenue Consultant,” a firm that will develop a study, building upon the work of earlier traffic studies performed by the DOT and its existing traffic consultant. The new study will refine traffic models, provide precise information on possible traffic diversion and expected revenue. The work is expected to take eight months.
A third advertisement seeks a Route 6/10 NEPA consultant, who will begin the environmental review process, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, for the reconstruction of the Route 6-10 interchange and the beginning of a process in which design alternatives are considered. This phase is expected to last one year.
Finally, the DOT is seeking a Route 6/10 Engineering consultant, to focus on the required preliminary design work to prepare plans to advance the 6/10 work into its next design phase. The consult will prepare a request-for-proposals for a design/build contract, seeking a public-private partnership. That process is expected to take two years.
According to RIDOT spokesman Charles St. Martin, the state agency will begin the selection process for companies in one month, with work on the various projects beginning this spring.
The state agency will select different consulting companies for each RFP, although they are expected to work together cooperatively to move the projects forward.
The work on the tolling gantries is expected to have the systems operational within 18 months, he said, in a news release.

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