Relating to public construction bidding

This bill concerns public construction bidding. The bill allows a government entity to use an alternative project delivery contract in circumstances that normally require the government entity to use competitive bidding procedures.3. The bill defines a government entity to include the state board of regents. The bill creates two types of alternative project delivery contracts, each with specified requirements. The first alternative is the construction manager-at-risk contract. If a government entity opts to use a construction manager-at-risk contract, the government entity shall select an engineer or architect to prepare the construction documents for the project. That engineer or architect cannot serve as the construction manager-at-risk. The government entity shall use a two-phase process in selecting the construction manager-at-risk. The first phase shall include a request for qualifications and the government entity’s selection criteria. The government entity may select at least two but no more than five of the construction managers-at-risk who submitted qualifications to participate in the second phase, based solely on the qualifications of those construction managers-at-risk. In phase two, the construction managers-at-risk that the government entity selects will provide additional information, including the project proposal, costs, and fees. The government entity shall rank the construction managers-at-risk in a manner in which qualifications account for at least percent of the evaluation and cost accounts for no more than percent of the evaluation. The government entity shall select the construction manager-at-risk that offers the best value based on the evaluation criteria. If the two parties do not reach an agreement, the government entity shall proceed with the next highest-ranked construction manager-at-risk and follow this process until the government entity reaches a contract with a construction manager-at-risk. The selected construction manager-at-risk shall advertise for and receive sealed bids for proposals from trade contractors or subcontractors and publicly review those bids with the government entity in a manner that does not disclose the contents of the bid or proposal during the selection process to a person not employed by the construction manager-at-risk, engineer, architect, or government entity involved with the project. The construction manager-at-risk will select a bid in consultation with the government entity. The second type of alternative project delivery method is the design-build contract, which allows for the selection of design-builders in either a three-phase or two-phase process. Under the design-build process, a government entity may retain a bridging criteria professional to advise the government entity on design-build matters. In the three-phase process, the government entity shall first request statements of qualifications from design-builders. The government entity shall select at least two but no more than five qualified design-builders to move on to phases two and three. In the second phase, the government entity shall solicit technical proposals and conceptual designs from the remaining design-builders. The government entity shall pay a stipend to any design-builder that participates in phase two but whose contract the entity does not select. The third phase involves the design-builders submitting construction costs. The government entity shall award points for each proposal. If the government entity chooses to award a contract, it shall award the contract to the design-builder with the highest point total. If the government entity uses the two-phase process, the government entity will request qualifications and include its selection criteria. The government entity will rank the qualifications of a design-builder. In the second phase, the government entity shall negotiate with the highest-ranked design-builder. If the two parties cannot agree to a contract with terms and conditions acceptable to the government entity, those negotiations shall be formally terminated and the government entity shall negotiate with the next highest-ranked design-builder. That process shall continue until the government entity can negotiate a contract with a design-builder with terms and conditions acceptable to the government entity.