Public Notice of Prequalification

(1) Public Notice and Solicitation of Responses to RFQ. Once the Prequalification Committee has met and finalized the RFQ and SOQ in accordance with the requirements set forth in 810 CMR 9.05 and 9.06, the Awarding Authority shall initiate the prequalification process by issuing a public notice to alert interested General Contractors that prequalification will be utilized for the procurement of a General Contractor on a particular Building Project and that general bids will not be accepted from General Contractors which have not been prequalified and invited to bid by the Awarding Authority as provided in M.G.L. c. 149, § 44D½, and 810 CMR 9.00. (2) Advertisement of Public Notice and Solicitation of Responses to RFQ. The public notice shall be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation in the area in which the Building Project is located, in the Central Register pursuant to M.G.L. c. 9, § 20A, and within the Commonwealth’s state-wide COMMBUYS procurement system, which is administered by the Commonwealth’s Operational Services Division. The public notice may also be posted on the Awarding Authority’s web-site, but such posting will not eliminate or substitute the requirement to advertise the public notice as set forth in 810 CMR 9.07. Time for Public Notice and Solicitation of Responses to RFQ. The public notice that prequalification will be utilized and solicitation of responses to the RFQ issued for that purpose shall be published by the Awarding Authority not less than two weeks before the deadline for submission of responses to the RFQ. (4) Contents of Public Notice and Solicitation. (a) The public notice must contain the following minimum required information regarding the Building Project: 1. a statement indicating that the RFQ will be used to prequalify General Contractors for a particular Building Project and only General Contractors who are prequalified by the Awarding Authority will be invited to submit a bid for the Building Project pursuant to M.G.L. c. 149, § 44E; 2. the location or locations where interested General Contractors can obtain a full copy of the RFQ, including both the actual address or addresses where a hard copy may be obtained and the electronic address or addresses where an electronic copy may be obtained; the time and date for receipt of responses to the RFQ, which shall be at least two weeks after the date of advertisement of the public notice and solicitation of responses to the RFQ; 4. both the mailing and physical address of the office to which the responses to the RFQ are to be delivered; 5. the timeframe in which the Awarding Authority will respond to said responses; 6. a general description of the Building Project which shall include a description of the physical location of the Building Project and the work to be performed; 7. the anticipated schedule for the Building Project from the time a notice to proceed is issued by the Awarding Authority; 8. the estimated construction cost for the Building Project; a listing of the project team, including the Awarding Authority, the Designer, and Awarding Authority's OPM, if applicable; a detailed description of the evaluation procedure and the criteria for the prequalification of General Contractors, including the point rating system to be enlisted by the Prequalification Committee in evaluating responses to the RFQ and the specific point allocation for each evaluation category and sub-category, and the anticipated schedule for the start and completion of the evaluation process; 11. a prohibition against any unauthorized communication or contact with the Awarding Authority outside of official pre-bid meetings. (The only communications which shall be deemed authorized are inquiries made to the Awarding Authority for general information about obtaining the RFQ, RFQ submission deadlines, and the existence of any relevant addenda to the RFQ; and inquiries made at any official Pre-RFQ submission meeting held by the Awarding Authority); and, if the Awarding Authority elects to limit the size and number of pages to be included in the responses to the RFQ then notice of that limitation must be included in the public notice and solicitation. (b) Where inclusion of all of the information set forth in 810 CMR 9.07(4)(a) in the text of the advertisement is not practicable due to the limitations of space and cost for such advertisement, the Awarding Authority shall include at a minimum the required information set forth in 810 CMR 9.07(4)(a)1. through 9. in the advertisement and explicitly state in the advertisement that all further required public notice information regarding the Building Project, including the prequalification evaluation criteria and the selection process, is included in the RFQ which shall be available to interested General Contractors at the physical and electronic locations set forth in the advertisement.