Knoxville-Knox County Planning, an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer, seeks to retain the services of one or more professional entities to provide services related to the completion of a “Regional Roadway Safety Plan.” This effort will involve several aspects of a roadway safety study within the Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) of the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO).

Required Scope of Services

• Project Coordination – the consultant will assist TPO staff with developing a project schedule and associated project management tasks such as invoicing, and status reporting.
• Determination of Scope – the consultant will work with TPO staff to develop a final Scope of Work for the safety plan.
• Recommendations for Improvement – the consultant will review existing applicable transportation policies and design standards, and make recommendations for improvement.
• Creation of Predictive Analysis Tool – the consultant will create a predictive analysis tool based on crash data, information about roadway characteristics, demographic data, and other relevant information. It’s anticipated that many of the data inputs can be provided by TPO to the consultant.
• Project Recommendations – the consultant will produce a prioritized set of engineering projects and programmatic strategies informed by crash data and the predictive analysis tool and aimed at reducing the incidence of fatal and serious-injury crashes. These will include traditional stand-alone engineering projects as well as lower-cost projects that can be incorporated into maintenance, as well as programs. The consultant will also produce estimates of the benefits of the projects and programs based on the reduction of fatal and serious-injury crashes and related cost savings to society.
• High-Injury Network – the consultant will assist TPO staff with an analysis of regional traffic crash data and the factors contributing to fatal and serious-injury crashes, with a goal of identifying a High-Injury Network (HIN) for the region.
• Vision Zero Plan for Knoxville –the Knoxville-specific elements of this plan will serve as a Vision Zero Plan for the city, and the consultant will assist City of Knoxville and TPO staff in packaging these elements into a stand-alone Vision Zero Plan.
• Presentations – the consultant shall provide presentations of the final project to the TPO Technical Committee and/or TPO Executive Board as requested.

Estimated Schedule

• Question deadline: Prospective respondents may submit questions no later than October 14, 2022, at 12 noon Eastern Time. All questions must be e-mailed to Ellen Zavisca, Principal Transportation Planner, at ellen.zavisca@knoxplanning.org.           
• Letters of Interest for Phase I due October 24, 2022
• Short list of firms selected to proceed to Phase II announced by October 31, 2022 (*)
• Phase II proposals due by November 14, 2022 (*)
• Final selection of highest ranked firm by November 23, 2022 (*)
• Contracts with the selected firm(s) will be finalized and initial project tasks estimated to begin by December 21, 2022 (*)

(*) These dates may change due to schedules and availability of the Evaluation Committee. The short-listed firms will be notified of new dates if delays occur.

For full details, please view the full notice.

Questions and Responses
All questions received about this request for qualifications and letters of interest by the Oct. 14 deadline are below, along with responses from TPO staff. 

Question: Will cost be a factor in phase 2 selection?
Response: Yes, we will be requesting that firms selected to submit for Phase II provide a cost estimate. 

Question: Can the Knoxville TPO provide a list of available data for systemic and predictive safety analyses? Specifically, can you please comment on roadway data coverage across the region – e.g., locally owned roads, across cities/counties, etc. for various roadway attributes? Can data samples be provided at the proposal stage?
Response: The TPO will be able to provide crash data and roadway attribute data to the selected firm. The crash data are from TITAN and have been reviewed, corrected and refined by TPO staff. Roadway attribute data are from E-TRIMS and include roadway cross-sections.  

Question: Are there schedule or timeline factors proposers should be aware of? For example, is the City of Knoxville aiming to have some portions of the plan completed in anticipation of the next SS4A funding cycle? Are there other local, regional, or national timeline constraints?
Response: The timeline calls for the plan to be substantially completed by the end of June 2023 so that it can be adopted by the TPO in July or August of 2023 and local governments will be able to seek project implementation funds through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program in 2023. 

Question: Is the consultant expected to do outreach as part of the Vision Zero effort, or will that be part of the city’s role?
Response: Public outreach for Knoxville’s Vision Zero effort will be the responsibility of Knoxville staff, not the consultant.

Question: Does the DBE need to be certified in Tennessee?
Response: No

Purpose

The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) is currently developing the Fiscal Year 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP is updated on a three-year cycle and covers a period of four years. A call for projects was issued in January 2022, with project applications due by February 25^th. This call for projects allowed jurisdictions to apply for new projects, or roll over and update unobligated phases of projects currently programmed in the FY 2020-2023 TIP.

Funding Availability

• TPO STBG Funds – TPO staff projects approximately $105.7M in local Surface Transportation Block Grant (L-STBG) federal funds available over the life of the 2023-2026 TIP to cover funding shortfalls in rollover projects and fund new projects. STBG funds are eligible for most project-types, but if used on a roadway project then it must be classified as Urban Minor Collector or higher on the state’s functional classification system. Most projects require a 20% local match.
• TPO STBG-TA Funds – Approximately $8.1M in local Surface Transportation Block Grant-Transportation Alternatives (L-STBG-TA) federal funds is available over the life of the 2023-02026 TIP to cover shortfalls in rollover projects and fund new projects. Again, projects typically require a 20% local match.
• Final revenue amounts will be determined by authorizations from the federal transportation bill. In addition, available funding may be impacted by cost increases within the current TIP program.

Evaluation Criteria

Projects will be scored and ranked using the criteria based on the goals and factors developed for the Mobility Plan 2045 process as shown on the project application form. Other criteria that TPO staff will be evaluating in making project selection recommendations will involve an assessment of project completion scheduling and assessment of project delays as determined by TIP programming policies. This assessment will be based on ease of project implementation, past performance of the sponsoring agency in the TDOT project development process and amount/status of other projects already under development by the sponsoring agency.

Project Applications Received

A total of 25 existing project rollover applications were received, requesting a total of $115.2 million in federal L-STBG funds and $4.9 million in federal L-STBG-TA funds.

• Rollover Project Applications Summary

A total of 18 new project applications were received, requesting $49.0 million in federal L-STBG funds and $1.4 million federal L-STBG-TA funds.

• New Project Applications Summary

Draft TIP Development Schedule

• Call for Projects Issued – January 14, 2022 (Complete)
• End Call for Projects – Friday, February 25, 2022 (Complete)
• TPO Staff Scoring and Project Prioritization/Fiscal Constraint consultation with project applicants – April, 2022
• TDOT submits state projects for inclusion in the draft TIP – April-May, 2022
• Draft TIP to Technical Committee/Executive Board for Review – June, 2022

Final TIP Technical Committee Recommendation/Executive Board Adoption – September, 2022