Consider request from SPLOST/Roadway Department for multiple Amendments to Professional Services Agreements for Rural Roadway Design Services for a variety of roadway improvement projects from Calco Engineering; Practical Design Partners; Vanasse Hanghen Brustlin (VHB); Heath & Lineback; and Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc.

The SPLOST/Roadway Department regularly utilizes engineering design services for projects that support the SPLOST Roadway Program. The use of an On-call Design Services contract is common among local governments in Georgia as they provide quick access to engineering firms which have prequalified agreements for projects. The county now holds contracts with a number of GDOT pre-qualified firms to respond to multiple transportation engineering design categories.

The current agreements for the rural roadway design category were signed in July 2025 and expire in 2030. Each agreement has an annual cap of $500,000.00 per firm, with a $200,000.00 per firm task order limit, which were calibrated to the amount of work and funding available through the current SPLOST program. However, some recent TSPLOST task order solicitations have exceeded these thresholds, revealing a need to amend the original agreements to take advantage of the time and cost savings associated with on-call / task order based contracts.

As such, the SPLOST/Roadway Department is requesting approval of a contract amendment to increase the on-call consultant design pool limits to a per task limit of $950,000 and a per year limit of $2,000,000 per contract. This will support continued task order bundling of upcoming TSPLOST project design efforts. Bundling similar projects under a single task order has proven to significantly reduce design costs by leveraging repeatable design elements, consolidated project management, and economies of scale. Concept Study task orders, which naturally carry lower and more uniform scopes, have demonstrated the potential of this strategy achieving an approximate 55 percent reduction in costs across the first twelve task orders, yielding savings of roughly $257,000. As these studies conclude and move into Final Design, higher task order caps will be necessary to continue bundling.

Increasing these limits will also improve the County’s ability to deliver the TSPLOST Program in a timely manner. Without raised ceilings, most projects would be required to proceed through the full RFQ process, extending consultant selection timelines from roughly five weeks to as many as twenty weeks. This delay reduces the overall value of the program as inflation erodes purchasing power each year. The requested increase in spending authority provides essential flexibility to lower long-term costs, shorten delivery timelines, and maximize the effectiveness of the existing TSPLOST budget without increasing overall program expenditures.