Project Description

SEMPO is requesting the services of a qualified transportation/engineering firm to conduct a detailed freight study for the Cape Girardeau-Jackson urbanized area. The SEMPO region is a multimodal hub in southeast Missouri housing a Mississippi River port, various river barge loading/unloading areas, a regional airport with commercial flights, rail and interstate infrastructure. This study must identify freight trends and how the metropolitan area will manage and operate a multi-modal transportation system (including highway, air, water, and rail transportation) to meet the region's economic, transportation, development and sustainability goals – among others –while remaining fiscally constrained. The purpose of this study is to provide a long-range framework for the implementation of multimodal improvements in the SEMPO metropolitan area. Public meetings will be required in order to attain feedback from stakeholders and the public at-large. The development of the Multimodal Freight Study will be funded in part with federal Metropolitan Planning funds, and shall meet all requirements thereof.

SEMPO has contracted with the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission (SEMO RPC) to provide oversight, coordination, and management of this study. The selected consultant is to work with SEMO RPC through the planning process with support from SEMPO.

Scope of Work

The development of a comprehensive, integrated, intermodal approach is needed to identify and meet the future freight and logistics needs of the SEMPO region. This Multimodal Freight Study is to provide a blueprint for addressing the current and projected freight movement needs, realistic opportunities for funding essential improvements, and functional responsibilities for implementation. This scope of work outlines the minimum requirements that the selected consultant must fulfill. Each consultant may elect to include additional or more detailed tasks in their proposal.

• Study must be multimodal in nature and include rail, highway, intermodal, air cargo, and port/river transportation
• Origin-Destination and/or supply chain analyses
  • Develop freight profiles per mode in the SEMPO area
  • Address questions on number of trips, routes traveled, commodities, values, etc.
  • Breakdowns per mode rail/truck/barge/etc.
  • Freight tonnages should also be presented in truck, rail, and/or barge volumes
  • Identify freight generators and importance
• Identify Freight generator's needs to improve efficiency and critical improvements
• Identify Truck Parking Inventory and Restrictions
• Identify Freight Network Congestion, Bottleneck, Safety and Security Issues
• Identify Critical Freight Corridors
  • Existing corridors and areas for future corridor development to support existing and future freight movement
• Forecast of Future Freight Growth
• Identify short-, mid-, and long-range strategies to address freight movement in the area
• Identify stakeholder-defined freight performance measures that can be used for future investment prioritization and strategy implementation monitoring

It is expected that the consultant will use information provided in the current Metropolitan Transportation Plan and other plans that have been previously developed by SEMPO and other communities and agencies.

Final deliverables will include electronic and hard copy versions of the document including maps, tables, charts, etc. More specific requirements for the final deliverables will be established as part of the contract once a consultant has been selected.

Submission Requirements

All proposals must include the following information:

1. Proposal Length: Proposals shall not exceed 30 pages, including the cover sheet.
2. Cover Sheet: The cover sheet shall list the name of the Consultant with names, email addresses and phone numbers of persons who may be contacted to answer questions. In addition, the cover sheet shall state who prepared the submittal and how they can be reached including phone number and email address.
3. Project Understanding: Provide a brief narrative explaining the team's understanding of the project goals and scope. Highlight the perceived unique opportunities, challenges, and priorities of this project and how the team will address them.
4. Project Team and Qualifications: The Consultant qualification information shall include:
   1. Firm Information: Provide information on firm size, years in business, locations, and primary services. Include the same information for any subcontractors on this project.
   2. Project Team: Provide a project organizational chart showing the proposed team structure for this contract. Identify the project manager, key personnel, and their roles and responsibilities on the project. Include short bios addressing knowledge and experience related to these roles and responsibilities. Clearly identify the roles of any subcontractors.
   3. Representative Projects: Describe specific experience of both individuals and firms with projects of a similar type that demonstrate the knowledge and experience of the personnel proposed in the areas identified in the scope of work. Describe the client/community, project, location, common issues, and links to electronic versions of work products, if possible.
   4. References: Identify at least three references for similar projects completed by the personnel proposed for this project. Include the client, contact person, mailing address, email address, and telephone number for each reference.
   5. Resume: Provide professional resumes for all personnel proposed for work on this project in an appendix.
5. Project Approach: Describe the team's approach to the project's scope of work. Include information on methods, meetings, deliverables, and other project related information for the tasks. Include any project approaches or ideas not included in the scope of work that would be applied to this project to enhance the quality of the team's services. The Consultant is encouraged to offer additional insights and may propose modifications to the scope of work identified above.
6. Project Management: Describe the team's project management approach including coordination across disciplines and managing the work of subcontractors, if applicable. Describe the methods and timeline of communication the team will use with SEMPO staff and other parties. Describe the team's expectations and requirements of SEMPO and its partners in order to effectively perform the services outlined in the RFQ.
7. Schedule: Provide a project schedule identifying milestones and completion dates. Provide a summary of personnel workload and availability to complete this project within the desired schedule.
8. Project Budget: In FY 2026 (from July 1 to June 30), SEMPO has designated $90,000 for the completion of this study. Proposals should be based on this budgetary allocation, and submissions should refrain from proposing any study that cannot be executed within this specified amount.

All responses are due Friday, October 24, 2025 by 4:00 pm CST. Proposals shall be submitted electronically in PDF format via email sent to jtanz@semorpc.org, uploaded to Consultant's FTP site with download access and instructions emailed, or placed on a USB drive and delivered to:

Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission
ATTN: SEMPO Freight Study
1 W. Saint Joseph Street
Perryville, MO 63775

ATTENTION: This description has been shortened to meet space requirements for posting. Please review the full RFQ on the SoutheastMPO website for additional General Information, Selection Process, and terms and conditions before submitting a proposal.

Questions Regarding This RFQ

Any questions concerning this RFQ should be directed to Jeremy Tanz, SEMO RPC Executive Director, at (573) 547-8357 or email jtanz@semorpc.org. If there are changes that might affect the preparation of the Consultants' submissions, all Consultants will be advised. Any Consultant that wishes to withdraw from consideration after submitting a proposal must submit a written notification to Jeremy Tanz via email at jtanz@semorpc.org or via mail at the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, 1 W. Saint Joseph Street, Perryville, MO 63775.