Thank you for your interest in becoming prequalified with the City of Thornton (“Thornton”) for projects over $500,000 in value. Please read this page in its entirety as it contains certain terms and conditions of Statement of Qualification (“SOQ”) submittal that you will be agreeing to.
If you have already been prequalified and are seeking to renew your qualification, please STOP and contact the Contracts and Purchasing Division.
Thornton prequalifies construction projects based on the needs of the project and the current economic and other factors affecting the delivery of the project. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Past Performance and experience
- Project management plan and capabilities.
- Responsibility, including:
- Safety plan and record.
- Financial, bonding and insurance capacity
- Claims, litigation, criminal convictions, debarments and integrity in business practices.
- Staff plan and personnel procurement.
- Workforce development and training.
- Employee benefits.
- Employee hourly rates of pay.
Thornton prequalifies contractors for the following categories:
- Utility:
- General Utility Projects (New or replacement water/sewer pipelines, manholes, etc.…)
- Pump Stations & Lift Stations
- Pipe Rehabilitation (Slip lining, pipe bursting...)
- Manhole Rehabilitation (Coatings….)
- Transportation:
- HMA Overlay Paving, Rotomilling & Chipseal Projects
- Heavy Highway
- General Concrete (just concrete: sidewalk, trail, etc.)
- Parks and Landscape:
- General Park & Landscaping Projects
- Irrigation Projects
This solicitation is always open and submissions are accepted at all times. Submissions will be reviewed at a minimum once quarterly. Cutoff dates shall be the ends of March, June, September and December.
In order to be considered prequalified to bid on a project, Contactors must be prequalified prior to the advertisement date of any project. Contractor’s prequalification status will be reevaluated by submitting an update form every two (2) years which will denote any significant changes that could affect a Respondent’s qualifications. Thornton reserves the right to perform interim submission reviews as needed at any time at its sole option.
All questions regarding the RFQ shall be directed in writing to Patrick Hinterberger, Contracts Supervisor, e-mail: patrick.hinterberger@ThorntonCO.gov.
Contractors may submit their qualifications at any time, however, submissions will be reviewed quarterly. Thornton reserves the right to perform interim submission reviews as needed at any time at its sole option.
Confidential Information
Prior to selection of the prequalified Respondents, any information contained within the SOQ may be held confidential by Thornton pursuant to Colorado’s Open Records Act (CORA), specifically Colo. Rev. Stat. 24-72-204(3)(a)(IV). After selection, the information within the SOQ becomes public information with the exception of information that has been clearly marked as confidential by the Respondent.
DO NOT type in confidential information into the prompts in the E-Form. Any confidential information must be uploaded in a separate file and contain “Confidential” in the file name.
Any information marked confidential shall comply with CORA and other applicable statutes. Thornton shall be held harmless from any claims arising from the release of confidential information not clearly designated as such by the Respondent or which does not comply with CORA. In general, it is not acceptable to Thornton to mark information other than financial statements, Project financing data, litigation history, tax audit history, or client lists as confidential. Further, it is not acceptable to mark price information as confidential. Failure to adhere to these restrictions may result in the entire submission being deemed non-responsive.
Conditions of SOQ Submittal
- Only prime General Contractors are required to submit prequalification documents. Subcontractors and suppliers may be post-qualified at Thornton’s sole option.
- All Respondents shall comply with all conditions, requirements, and specifications contained herein, and any departure from such conditions, requirements, or specifications may constitute sufficient cause for rejection of the entire SOQ.
- Only one (1) SOQ will be accepted from any Contractor.
- Information submitted for the prequalification process shall become the sole property of Thornton. To the extent permitted by law, financial information and litigation and claim information will be considered confidential (if marked as such by the Respondent) by Thornton and will not be subject to review by outside individuals or organizations.
- Material misstatements on any of the SOQs’ forms may be grounds for rejection of the Contractor’s SOQ. Any such misstatement, if discovered after a Contractor has been notified of being prequalified, or award of a Contract to such Respondent, may be grounds for immediate termination of the Contractors Contract and/or rescinding the Contractors prequalified status. Additionally, the Respondent will be liable to Thornton for any additional costs or damages to Thornton resulting from such misstatements, including costs and attorney's fees for collecting such costs and damages.
- Each Respondent submitting a SOQ will be notified of their prequalified status by Thornton.
- No Respondent will be considered for prequalification if it is in arrears, indebted, debarred or is in default on a contract or obligation, either as surety or in any capacity, with Thornton.
- Thornton reserves the right to reject any and all SOQ’s, or any part thereof. Thornton further reserves the right to waive any formalities, or informalities contained in any SOQ’s, and to prequalify the most responsive, responsible, and trustworthy Respondent as deemed in the best interest of Thornton.
- Thornton will not return SOQ’s, or other information supplied to Thornton, to the Contractors..
- Thornton reserves the right to request additional clarification of information, or other information that may have been inadvertently omitted from the submission upon request.
- Thornton reserves the right to rescind a prequalification status when other circumstances and developments have, in the opinion of Thornton, changed the qualifications or responsibility of the Respondent.
- All Respondents submitting SOQ’s shall agree that a rejection or decision shall be without liability on the part of Thornton for any damage or claim brought by any Respondent because of such rejections or decisions, nor shall the Respondent seek any recourse of any kind against Thornton, its officers, agents or employees because of such rejections or decisions.
- Section 7.4 of the Thornton City Charter prohibits Thornton from entering into any contract involving an amount in excess of one hundred dollars ($100) in which an elective or appointive officer or any member of the officer's family has any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect, in the Respondent. Certain other restrictions may also apply to contracts in which an employee, member of a board or commission, City Council member or member of their family has an existing or pending financial or personal interest. For the purposes of this Charter Section, a domestic partner shall be considered a family member. For questions regarding this, contact the Contracts Supervisor.
- By submission of the Qualification Affidavit, bank letter of reference, and the bonding company letter required herein, the Respondent certifies that it has adequate financial capacity to perform the anticipated Work. The Respondent shall not submit proprietary financial information such as financial statements, depreciation statements, or balance sheets.
- It is the Respondents sole responsibility to understand which projects they are prequalified to bid and to only submit bids for these projects. If uncertain, Respondents should refer to their prequalification letter or check the bid documents for a list of prequalified Contractors for that project. Thornton will not accept bids from Contractors who are not prequalified for the project. Further, Thornton shall not be responsible for any and all bid preparation costs for bids prepared and submitted, but rejected by Thornton because the Contractor was not prequalified for the project.
- Thornton will attempt to notify prequalified contactors by email when new Bid packages are posted to the website, however, email notifications can be subject to a variety of conveyance complications, and there is no guaranty that these notifications will reach their intended recipients. Therefore, it shall be the Contactor’s sole responsibility to monitor Thornton’s website for newly added projects released for bid.
- Prequalification status lasts for 2 years. At the end of the term, prequalified contractors will receive a renewal form to remain prequalified.
Non-compliance with one (1) or more of the above requirements is grounds for disqualification at Thornton’s sole discretion.
Evaluation of SOQ's
All SOQ's will be evaluated by a Selection Committee assigned by the City Manager, or their designee. The Selection Committee shall have sole authority to review, evaluate, and determine the Contractor’s qualifications using the below criteria as well as any other relevant criteria that may become available. The Selection Committee may decide a Contractor is qualified or not qualified based on any one factor, and/or on multiple factors at its sole discretion. The criteria is not weighted for importance, but will be individually evaluated as to importance, relevance, and acceptability.
Evaluation Criteria
In determining a Respondent’s qualifications, the following factors will be considered:
- Whether the Respondent maintains a permanent place of business in Colorado, or can demonstrate its ability to establish and maintain a place of business away from its established business location(s).
- Resources available to perform the Work properly and expeditiously within the time available.
- The Respondent’s historic record of successful project completion, with minimal interference to the public or of public complaints, as demonstrated through reference checks.
- Appropriate technical past experience of the Respondent, and the Respondent’s key-personnel.
- The Respondent’s safety program and safety record on completed and ongoing projects over the past three (3) years including Experience Modification Rating (EMR), Total Recordable Incident Rates (TRIR), Days away Restricted Time (DART) and any fatalities. Criteria will be evaluated on a case by case basis except:Criteria will be evaluated as follows:
- Experience Modification Rating (EMR) for each of the past three (3) years. Contractor’s three (3) year average EMR should be no greater than 1.0. If a Contractor’s three (3) year average EMR is greater than 1.0 but less than 1.2, it is subject to Committee review (which may lead to possible disqualification) and Thornton may ask Contractor to submit additional information about its safety program to the Selection Committee to help assess eligibility. Any three (3) year average EMR greater than 1.2 is grounds for disqualification without further review at Thorntons discretion;
- Respondent not in arrears on any obligation to Thornton or to any other public owner.
- Pending or completed relevant legal actions against the Respondent that, in Thornton’s opinion, could impact the company’s ability to complete this Project or demonstrate a pattern of excessive, or inappropriate legal actions.
- Historical record working/dealing with several Governmental, multi-jurisdictional permitting agencies for a single project.
- Successful completion of at least three (3) projects in the last five (5) years over five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for each category of work that are similar in scope and size that Respondent desires to be prequalified for.
- Results of reference checks.
- Available bonding capacity must be three milliondollars ($3,000,000) or higher. The Contractor shall have the ability to bond all Projects at one hundred percent (100%) of the construction value. Respondents’ surety or sureties must be listed in the Federal Circular 570 and must be approved by the City of Thornton (Thornton). In no case will sureties with less than an A.M. Best’s A rating be approved.
- Respondents ability to demonstrate that their staffing plan and personnel procurement, workforce development and training, current hourly rates of pay, and employee benefits shall be within a normal and acceptable range for the industry and the local community:
- Respondents are responsible for demonstrating that the combination of current pay roll wages and benefits provided to employees meets or exceeds the market standards for the local community, or, Contractor must certify that hourly wages meet or exceed the applicable Adams County Davis Bacon Wage Determination (acceptable benchmark). Alternatively, Thornton will review hourly pay ranges for key positions within the Contractor’s field organizational structure. Wages for salaried management personnel do not need to be provided.