Sound Transit: E360 East Link Extension
Light rail design-build SOQ addresses “significant constraints” and leads to a winning proposal
For this statement of qualifications (SOQ), the design-build joint venture team had just six pages to present the approach for a light rail project with two miles of mostly elevated track, two stations, a parking garage and a pedestrian bridge crossing a dozen lanes of interstate traffic. The response also needed to address an even bigger challenge: What the client described as “significant constraints” regarding stakeholders and the physical site.
Project Services
Strategy messaging
Proposal messaging & win themes
Technical writer & editor
Work with SMEs
Markets
Design-build
SOQs & RFPs
Heavy civil construction
Infrastructure
Light rail
Fortune 500
Seattle
Washington
Approach
For this section, my work included:
Working with engineers to brainstorm ideas and gather information
Writing the content, including specifics on how the team would manage the long list of stakeholders and jurisdictions and how we would tackle work alongside an interstate with virtually no construction right-of-way.
Conceiving the overall presentation that met page limitations with the graphic designer, while she created a layout that met the very specific rules laid out by the client regarding fonts, page sizes and margins
Incorporating comments from three review cycles and dozens of reviewers
As lead editor for the proposal, I also developed strategies, branding, and messaging; led section brainstorms and provided developmental editing; re-wrote and edited sections, and performed the final “one voice” edit; and supervised additional editors, including assigning and reviewing work.
Results
By using stories from previous jobs, I provided proof of the team's ability to work with the constraints. Consistent messaging on these concerns from early design concepts through finished construction reinforced the team's ability to meet the challenges.
The team was short-listed based on this SOQ and went on to win the $227-million project.