An authority must issue a detailed proposal request to qualified or short-listed proposers, include specified project and evaluation information, and follow required steps for receiving, scoring, and ranking proposals.
Sec. 370.406. REQUEST FOR DETAILED PROPOSALS. (a) An authority shall issue a request for detailed proposals to proposers qualified or short-listed under Section 370.405. A request for detailed proposals must include: (1) information on the overall project goals; (2) the authority's cost estimates for the design-build portion of the work; (3) materials specifications; (4) special material requirements; (5) a schematic design approximately 30 percent complete; (6) known utilities, provided that an authority 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 authority pursuant to Section 370.183 relating to awarding contracts to disadvantaged businesses; (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 (c), 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 (c) and the formula by which the proposals will be evaluated and ranked, provided that the formula shall allocate at least 70 percent of the weighting to the cost proposal; and (14) the criteria and weighting for each element of the technical proposal. (b) A request for detailed proposals shall also include a general form of the design-build contract that the authority proposes if the terms of the contract may be modified as a result of negotiations prior to contract execution. (c) Each response to a request for detailed proposals must include a sealed technical proposal and a separate sealed cost proposal. (d) The technical proposal must address: (1) the proposer's qualifications and demonstrated technical competence, provided that the proposer shall not be requested to resubmit any information that was submitted and evaluated pursuant to Section 370.405(a)(3); (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 authority. (e) An authority may provide for the submission of alternative technical concepts by a proposer. If an authority provides for the submission of alternative technical concepts, the authority must prescribe a process for notifying a proposer whether the proposer's alternative technical concepts are approved for inclusion in a technical proposal. (f) The cost proposal must include: (1) the cost of delivering the project; (2) the estimated number of days required to complete the project; and (3) any terms for financing for the project that the proposer plans to provide. (g) A response to a request for detailed proposals shall be due not later than the 180th day after the final request for detailed proposals is issued by the authority. This subsection does not preclude the release by the authority of a draft request for detailed proposals for purposes of receiving input from short-listed proposers. (h) An authority shall first open, evaluate, and score each responsive technical proposal submitted on the basis of the criteria described in the request for detailed proposals and assign points on the basis of the weighting specified in the request for detailed proposals. The authority 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 authority as provided in the request for detailed proposals. The authority 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 detailed proposals. The authority shall rank the proposers in accordance with the formula provided in the request for detailed proposals. Added by Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1345 (S.B. 1420), Sec. 38, eff. September 1, 2011.