Act 88 prescribed the actual steps that PennDOT followed in the procurement of the Rapid Bridge Replacement Project. PennDOT maintained an aggressive schedule for the procurement, moving from a request for qualifications to an intent to award in just ten months, which is extremely quick for a P3 project of this scale and complexity. PennDOT issued a request for qualifications from potential bidders on December 12, 2013 and received responses from five groups on January 31, 2014. PennDOT shortlisted four proposers on March 26 and issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) within ten days on April 4, 2014.
The proposers were asked to review the document and prepare questions and comments. PennDOT then held separate discussions with each of the proposers and used their input to prepare several drafts and ultimately issue a final RFP on August 12, 2014. This consultation process enabled PennDOT to understand the private sector's concerns and structure the procurement to address these issues and create as competitive an environment as possible.
Bidders submitted their proposals to PennDOT on September 29, 2014. PennDOT ranked the proposals giving a 90 percent weighting to cost and the remaining ten percent to the following technical evaluation criteria: financial capacity to carry out the project; background and experience in managing comparable projects; and project understanding.
On October 24, 2014, PennDOT announced Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners as its preferred proposer. The company is a partnership of Plenary Group USA Ltd. (a Denver-based public infrastructure developer) and Walsh Investors, LLC (the investment arm of a large Illinois-based construction firm). On January 8, 2015 PennDOT and Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners signed a formal Project Partnership Agreement, a milestone known as commercial close.