Landing municipal engineering contracts

[photoengineer]

In another forum, I posted about how a city gave a contract to a person to evaluate the hydro plant and prepare a report to the city to evaluate the potential benefit to reactivating the plant. The consultant was paid $20,000 for this work and provided a 144 page report.

I'd like to do this kind of work! How do I go about finding out what kinds of services they need and putting my name in the hat? I have reviewed the websites and they are not clear how they go about procuring this type of work.

Are the legal section of the paper the best way to keep track of upcoming bids? or is there another way? I don't personally know the city officials, so I don't have an "in" at the city.

 

[dogtop]

What about walking to the office of the City Chief Engineer to find out?
HTH

 

[PeterStock]

Find out if he belongs to some group like Kiwanis and join. You would get other contacts as well.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

http://www.infotechpr.net

 

[jgailla]

You have to bribe people.
The bribes are called "political contributions" now.

 

[msquared48]

Frequently jurisdictions are members of a website where you can register your firm, giving your expertise and putting your name on a contact list for future RFQ's and RFP's.

You need to start there... As said already, ask questions at the agency you want to do business with. They will lead you in the right direction.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[cvg]

Larger cities and counties will require that you register with them to be able to do work for the city. You may have to do this before you can respond to a RFP. most cities post RFP's on a website so you need to be checking there. Also, unless you have done some upfront marketing prior to the RFP coming out, you will probably have no chance of getting the work. You will need to talk to the city officials including the plant operators, maintenance supervisors, staff engineers, department heads, city engineer and perhaps public works director before hand so they all know who you are - then you might have a chance. In addition, you will need past experience doing this type of work, successfully for another city. If you are getting your leads from the newspaper, you are probably wasting your time...

 

[stanford94]

most if not all gov't agencies "bid" the work out to the low bidder. just join onvia or demandstar and you will see everything that is procured for your county or city govt. easy.

 

[cvg]

stanford - I'm not sure where you get your info, but most gov agencies are not allowed to bid engineering or consulting work to a low bidder. The Brooks Act did away with that and it is generally on qualifications alone.

see the following link which gives a pretty accurate description of the actual process used by nearly all public agencies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualifications-Based_Selection

 

[stanford94]

woops. sorry. i am still in contracting mode.

 

[mauricestoker]

If you are looking at any federal opportunities, this site would be a good start:

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=main&mode=list&tab=list

As above, all A-E selection is covered by Brooks Act, which limits design fees to 6%, but does not limit A-E fees.