Submitted by San Juan County

San Juan County is seeking proposals from interested parties to provide a variety of transportation services throughout the County. Three separate Requests for Proposals outline services including foot passenger transportation to Anacortes, interisland foot passenger transportation and emergency barge transportation services.

All RFPs are available for download on the project page. Additional information about the project is also available on the Engage page: https://engage.sanjuancountywa.gov/san-juan-county-emergency-transportation-services. All RFP submittals are due by Friday, March 14.

Project background

In August, Council issued a request to the Governor’s Office for “executive relief” from ferry service disruptions, providing a 180-day proposal. This request was granted in September when Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee traveled to Friday Harbor to announce an award of $1.5 million from the Department of Commerce’s Emergency Rapid Response fund, with a contract finalized in November. San Juan County’s program aims to support three main initiatives during ferry service disruptions:

• Interisland passenger-only water taxi service.

• Anacortes/San Juan Islands passenger-only charter service.

• On-call essential/critical services barge transportation.

Funding from the Governor’s Office will support these three pilot initiatives on an interim and emergency basis. The pilot project is expected to commence under a schedule proposed by the service provider and agreed to by the County. At this time, the project is expected to conclude on June 30 but may be extended as funding allows.

About the RFP process

Proposals will be evaluated based on proposed service level, experience and credentials of the organization and personnel, organization capacity, speed of project start-up and cost.

Service providers are expected to collect trip and ridership data to support long-term reporting goals for the project. Regular reports will detail the number of trips completed, number of passengers served and number of sailings canceled, among other statistics.

Responses to this RFP will be evaluated by the County based on standard criteria. The County Council has final decision-making authority and reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, and/or withdraw or subsequently modify or review the terms contained with the RFPs.

Relevant URLs:

• https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/31962/FINAL_RFP_ERR-FERRY-FUNDING_ANACORTES-WALK-ON.

• https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/31964/FINAL_RFP_ERR-FERRY-FUNDING_INTERISLAND.

• https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/31963/FINAL_RFP_ERR-FERRY-FUNDING_BARGE-SERVICE.

Questions?

Contact Mark Tompkins, Health & Community Services director, 360-370-7517, markt@sanjuancountywa.gov.