REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: GREGORY A. BARFIELD, Director
Department of Transportation
BY: SANDY CETTI, Project Manager
Department of Transportation
SUBJECT
Title
Award an Architect and Engineering Contract to Provost & Pritchard Engineering Group, Inc. to be in effect upon approval through December 31, 2030, in an amount not to exceed $219,623.21, for full design services for eighty (80) Fresno Area Express (FAX) Standard Bus Stops Phases E-H for construction to remediate Americans with Disability Act (ADA) deficiencies (Bid File #12600127)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends Council award an architect and engineering contract to Provost & Pritchard Engineering Group to be in effect upon approval through December 31, 2030, in an amount not to exceed $219,623.21 for full design services for eighty (80) Fresno Area Express Standard Bus Stops Phases E-H for construction to remediate Americans with Disability Act (ADA) deficiencies.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Department of Transportation, FAX Division, seeks to award a contract to deliver full design services for eighty (80) FAX standard bus stops located throughout the City of Fresno, per City of Fresno standard drawings. These design drawings will lead to construction to remediate Americans with Disability Act (ADA) deficiencies found at the stops per the FAX ADA Transition Plan approved by Council on September 2, 2021. The remediation work will also serve to provide safer bus stops and an improved customer experience at each of the project stops.
BACKGROUND
In December 2015, Council approved a consultant to survey Fresno’s bus stops systemwide, identify barriers for access, and develop a transition plan per Title II of the ADA to guide FAX in the correction of ADA-related deficiencies. The resulting plan’s adoption on September 2, 2021, provided FAX with a 30-year remediation schedule for ADA deficiencies at bus stops systemwide.
A key component of the FAX ADA Transition Plan is FAX’s commitment to spend $500,000 annually on the remediation of ADA deficiencies. Additionally, the Transition Plan provided a prioritization of FAX bus routes according to ridership and access to key services (healthcare, education, food, etc.) to guide the locations targeted by this $500,000 annual expenditure. Per this prioritization structure, the next routes that FAX intends to focus on are 22 and 26.
FAX is also guided by the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Transit Asset Management (TAM) policies. TAM seeks to establish an expected condition rating at which FAX must maintain its assets. While bus stops are not subject to the requirements of the FTA’s TAM policies, FAX recognizes the important role that well-maintained bus stops play in the FAX customer experience. To improve the customer experience and safety associated with bus stops, FAX has begun the process of improving its tracking and management of condition ratings of bus stops and associated passenger amenities such as shelters, benches, and trash cans. Council approved a FAX contract with Bureau Veritas to collect condition assessments on all bus stops and associated passenger amenity assets. This information is being loaded into a new Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software (a Council approved sole source procurement through Trapeze Software, Inc.) for tracking and prioritizing future capital investments. This software and associated database will be used with the ADA Transition Plan to inform decisions about where FAX makes its capital investments throughout the bus system.
FAX seeks to award a contract for architecture and engineering services to Provost & Pritchard Engineering Group in an amount not to exceed $219,623.21. This contract will utilize information housed within FAX’s ADA Transition Plan, the in-progress condition assessments of FAX bus stops, and the FAX standard bus stop drawings to provide construction-ready drawings for the next 80 bus stops that need repairs and ADA remediations. These stops will then be broken into four phases of work for construction according to FAX’s commitment of $500,000 annually for ADA remediation work. The stops being designed are found throughout all City of Fresno City Council districts.
A request for qualifications (RFQ) was published to Planet Bids on August 15, 2025 via Bid File Number 12600127 and was sent to three additional agencies for distribution of the solicitation. Proposal submissions closed on August 29, 2025, with one bidder submitting a qualifications proposal. FAX called and emailed prospective bidders listed on Plant Bids to understand the lack of proposals. All comments received indicated a lack of available staff time and other resources available to bid on this project. The technical review of this proposal was held September 11, 2025, following the committee and evaluation guidelines presented in the solicitation.
Provost & Pritchard Engineering Group was determined to be suitable to perform the work and their proposal was deemed both responsible and responsive. Due to federal funding, the Brooks Act was followed and their cost proposal was requested for review after the committee deemed them as qualified based on the criteria set in the RFQ. Cost proposal negotiations did not need to occur because FAX approved their profit and overhead rates as is.
The City Attorney has approved the contract to form.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
This is not a “project” for the purpose of CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not applicable as the use of federal funding precludes the use of local preference. However, the anticipated awardee is a local business in accordance with Administrative Order 3-1.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no impact to the General Fund from this action. Expenses from this contract shall be funded primarily by a State of California 2024 Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) funding allocation, through Senate Bill 125. Sufficient appropriations were included and are available in the FAX FY2026 budget.
Attachments:
Selection Committee Report
RFQ 12600127
Provost & Pritchard’s Proposal
Consultant Services Agreement
List of Bus Stops by District