In a request for proposal (RFP) released June 25, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) seeks help from contractors in a “Project Performance Assessment Tool Update” that would likely modernize a solution SACOG created last year. Among the takeaways:
- SACOG developed the Project Performance Assessment tool (PPA) in 2020 to help it and “project sponsors quantitatively evaluate the potential of transportation projects to further regional goals such as reducing emissions or congestion, encouraging active transportation, promoting economic prosperity, etc.,” according to the RFP. “Measuring across these goals” also enables regional initiatives compete for discretionary state and federal funding. The council wants a consultant to “help it make several key improvements to the tool,” including “providing a reliable, user-friendly online hosting platform for the tool” and delivering better “report-out functionality.”
- The council’s current tool, it said, is hosted on Esri’s ArcGIS Portal Platform and runs on Python scripts which SACOG staff members wrote. It can be found here. Its features include the ability to examine multiple data layers; separate tool interfaces for “regional” and “community design” programs – both of which let users “draw a project line on a web map as an input” and complete text fields before hitting “run” to start the tool. Upon finish, users are able to download reports as Excel files. Detailed information on the tool, including source code and development documentation, may be found here, on SACOG’s GitHub.
- SACOG wants to preserve and “ideally, expand upon” the existing tools features such as by obtaining the ability to update and expand it in-house. However, the tool has “several key issues” that will require outside assistance to address including long run times – five to 10 minutes even for short projects. Here, SACOG would like to “transition to an asynchronous report delivery system that sends the report to the user as an email.” Occasional crashes are also an issue and they’re “hard to predict and impossible to replicate on demand.” Report-out functions should be improved, considering SACOG expects the tool’s useage to increase. It currently produces final project reports as Excel workbooks, but officials would prefer PDFs to improve accessibility. SACOG also wants a way to compare multiple projects side by side, including via visual tools such as tables and bar charts.
- Mandatory deliverables include a cloud-based system capable of hosting “an intuitive, front-end interface through which end users enter information and send commands to Python scripts and data layers developed in-house”; a report-out system that delivers PDF output reports via email when the tool is done running; and documentation of deliverables including a users’ guide on operating consultant-created deliverables; metadata for data layers and inputs created by a consultant; and programming language documentation. Optional deliverables include a system by which the tool can log the outcome of all runs and save spatial data associated with runs; improving the visual quality of the map on the tool interface; and the ability for SACOG staff to augment and modify tool interfaces by themselves.
- The council hasn’t posted an estimated budget or not-to-exceed amount for the project. Proposals will be evaluated based on best value and should feature annual rates and costs for a possible three-year agreement. Questions are due by 11:59 p.m. July 14; responses will come July 19. Proposals are due by 11:59 p.m. Aug. 20, and the tentative contractor selection date is Sept. 24.
