SUBJECT
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Approve selection committee’s recommendation to authorize staff to negotiate professional engineering services agreements with Dewberry Engineers, Inc. and AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (No fiscal impact)
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DESCRIPTION
The Parks and Natural Resources Division requested Procurement to solicit proposals from qualified professional engineering firms interested in providing engineering services for water infrastructure repair and water quality improvement solutions within the Lakeland to Bartow Lake Watershed.
The County was awarded $70,000,000.00 in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding through the Florida Department of Commerce for the Lakeland to Bartow Lake Watershed - Peace River Resilience Project. The project is broken down into two projects to address flooding, improve stormwater management, increase flood storage capacity, and improve water quality throughout the watershed.
Request for Proposal (RFP) 26-320, Engineering Services for Water Infrastructure Repair & Water Quality Improvement Solutions for the Lakeland to Bartow Lake Watershed was issued and five vendors submitted proposals. The selection committee met on October 7, 2026; to evaluate and score the proposals and all firms were elevated to interviews. On Tuesday, October 13 ,2026, the selection committee conducted interviews and received presentations from the five proposers. After the interviews, the selection committee ranked the proposers for each project. The consensus of the selection committee was to request the Board authorize staff enter negotiations with all proposers interviewed, starting with the highest ranked proposer for each project. The following is a listing of the firms and their rankings for each project:
Project 1- Water Infrastructure Repair
Proposer City Rank
Dewberry Engineers, Inc. Lakeland, FL 1
AECOM Technical Services, Inc. Tampa, FL 2
WSP Tampa, FL 3
American Structure Point, Inc. Tampa, FL 4
RK&K Lakeland, FL 5
Project 2 - 21st Century Water Quality Improvement Solutions
Proposer City Rank
AECOM Technical Services, Inc. Tampa, FL 1
American Structure Point, Inc. Tampa, FL 2
WSP Tampa, FL 3
Dewberry Engineers, Inc. Lakeland, FL 4
RK&K Lakeland, FL 5
A recommendation of award was made to each firm ranked the highest for each project and no protests were received.
RECOMMENDATION
Request Board approve the Selection Committee’s recommendation and authorize staff negotiate agreements with the following firms to provide professional engineering services for the following projects:
Firm Project
Dewberry Engineers, Inc. Water Infrastructure Repair
AECOM Technical Services, Inc. 21st Century Water Quality Improvement Solutions
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact during negotiations.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Jason Flucker-Williams
Procurement Analyst
Procurement
(863) 534-6716
jasonfluckerwilliams@polkfl.gov <mailto:jasonfluckerwilliams@polkfl.gov>